


THE NEW HALE

by Thedeanael



Series: The story of Stella Argent [3]
Category: teen wolf - Fandom
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-24
Updated: 2020-10-10
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:55:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 31,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24899542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thedeanael/pseuds/Thedeanael
Summary: I apologize for the typos in advancee and just letting you know this is the third part of the Stella Argent storyline with THE NEW ARGENT being the first and THE OTHER ARGENT being the second ^^
Relationships: Scott McCall/Kira Yukimura, Stiles Stilinski/Malia Tate
Series: The story of Stella Argent [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1753387
Kudos: 1





	1. THE DARK MOON

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for the typos in advancee and just letting you know this is the third part of the Stella Argent storyline with THE NEW ARGENT being the first and THE OTHER ARGENT being the second ^^

Stiles and Lydia walked around the city, looked around as they were waiting for the time to start their plan in Mexico. Lydia wasn’t feeling comfortable at all. She couldn’t stop thinking about Stella, it’s been almost two months since that day. Lydia knew she was in London right now. She knew about it because Stella only talked to Stiles before she went away and after saying goodbye, she drove to the airport to catch her flight and Stiles told them what happened later.

Lydia was the only one who could ever be close to understanding her. But it still bothered the fact that Stella only told Stiles she was going, leaving Beacon Hills. It still bothered that she didn’t call any of them until they called her to tell her who was her father. She was upset. She knew Stella was hurting and grieving but it still hurt Lydia that Stella didn’t try to contact with them.

But again, underneath her ‘mean girl’ attitude, due to everything they’ve been through together, Stella was her weak spot and when it came to her? She was more loving, more comforting. It was absolutely impossible for her to stay mad at her for a very long time.

Especially after the reason why Stella left Beacon Hills. 

“This doesn’t seem so bad” Stiles said, pulling her away from her thoughts. He kept looking around, standing right next to Lydia. To be honest, Stiles was also a nervous wreck and considering his anxiety, the disturbing feeling was just growing inside him with each second, but they had to go through with the plan.

They had to save Derek from the hands of Calaveras.

“It’s not the town” Lydia reacted to Stiles’ thoughts. She took a deep breath, her green yes moved on the locals around them. “It’s the plan.”

Stiles connected his hands in front of his stomach and turned his head slowly to look at the young girl. “What’s wrong with the plan?” he asked. 

“Stiles” Lydia said, like the problem in the plan was just too obvious and he was just too stupid to see it. She softly coughed and continued. “This could be the stupidest plan we’ve ever come up with.” She looked at Stiles who was wearing a red t-shirt, continued speaking. “You’re aware of that, right?”

“I’m aware it’s not our best” Stiles responded, also not feeling comfortable with the plan but kept telling himself that it will work. 

“We are going to die” Lydia whispered.

Knowing she was a banshee and thinking that things like ‘death’ shouldn’t have been in her vocabulary for the fun of it, Stiles quickly turned his head to Lydia. “Are you saying that as a Banshee or you’re just being pessimistic?” he questioned, starting to walking towards the building as the time of the plan was closing in.

“I’m saying it as a person who doesn’t wanna die” Lydia responded.

Stiles’ hand went up to behind his ear nervously, parted his lips. “Okay” he murmured, feeling anxious about the plan already. “Would you just mind restricting any talk of death to actual Banshee predictions?”

“This plan is stupid and we’re going to die” Lydia responded, smiling, and looking at Stiles.

“Oh, thank you” he said, looking at Lydia as they kept walking.

When the sky got darker and it was nighttime, Stiles and Lydia stopped in front of the door to a club. There were two guards waiting in the gate. Lydia said something in Spanish. Stiles could only the pick the word ‘fiesta’ as his eyebrows raised up.

Guards shook their hand now, but Stiles pulled up a card from his back pocket. It had a skull drawing on it as it meant something for the Calaveras. He showed it to the guys. One of them waved his head to the camera, telling Stiles to show the card to cameras. Stiles glanced over at Lydia before he pulled the card up and did as he was told.

The doors opened widely, and as soon as Stiles and Lydia walked, it closed back. The sound echoed in the entrance; two teenagers looked back. Stiles sighed as he looked at Lydia.

It was too late now to go back.

Stiles and Lydia walked through the corridor that had the red colored walls all along. The lamps on the ceiling and hanging on the walls were shaking with the loud music. They could hear people cheering. And as they stepped into the club, the music and the cheering got louder. Everyone was dancing, losing themselves to the music.

Stiles and Lydia walked up to the bar, sat on the stools. Few seconds later, two shots were placed on the counter in front of them. Lydia knitted her eyebrows, looking at the drink meanwhile Stiles reached for his money, not knowing what to do but stopped as they felt hands, squeezing their shoulder. “No” a thick voice said. He was talking with a broken accent, apparently he was a local. “On the house.” Stiles put his money back as Lydia shook her head no for the both of them. The guy raised his eyebrows in disbelief. “Most American teenagers don’t cross the border to refuse a drink.”

“We didn’t come to drink” Lydia said, looking ahead. But then she pulled a bullet from her jacket’s pocket and dropped it inside the shot glass.

It was a bullet that had a skull carving on it. A bullet that belonged to the Calaveras…

“Severo hates this music” the lady said who was cleaning the knife she was holding with a piece of fabric. She was standing behind the desk, looking down at the sharp knife. “Me? I’ve always loved the music of youth.” Lydia and Stiles moved on their spot nervously as Araya Calavera continued. “This kind, especially. It has a savage energy.”

“We’re here for Derek Hale” Lydia announced the minute woman stopped talking. She took a deep breath as Araya raised her eyebrows. “We know you have him.” Araya was looking at the confident teenager sitting on her chair. Lydia continued, lowering her voice. “We’ve heard… you can be bought.”

Stiles grabbed 50K from the bag he was holding and placed them on the table. “It’s 50,000 for Derek” he said.

As Stiles rested back, Araya was looking at the two teenagers. She definitely looked like she was having fun. For the moment. “Now where does a teenage boy get money like this?” she questioned, putting the blade on the desk, her eyes on Stiles. “Japanese Mafia?” The hunter sitting on the couch near the door, cocked his gun causing Lydia to look at him over her shoulder. The others put their guns safeties on. Meanwhile Araya placed her hands on the table, leaned onto it. “Not smart to come alone.”

“What makes you think we came alone?” Stiles asked, like the hunter, he leaned in as well. He was still sitting on the chair, but his eyes were looking at Araya flickering with confidence. They had a were-coyote on the dance floor, Malia. They had a Kitsune, sitting on one of the boots, Kira. And they had their alpha, inside the club, Scott…

Araya angrily hit the table. Her furious eyes looked at Lydia and Stiles as she was questioning how stupid they were. And when she talked, she was raged. “You brought a wolf into my home?!”

Stiles let out a soft and slight grin. “We brought an Alpha.”

“My friends” Araya said, turned around. “I don’t think you’re aware of your poor timing.” She looked outside the window as she sighed. “Do you know what the dark moon is?”

“The part of the lunar phase when the moon is least visible in the sky” Lydia murmured, looking at Araya.

The hunter turned around. “But do you know its meaning?” she asked. Her eyes found Stiles and Lydia, waiting for an answer.

“Some people say it’s a time of reflection or grief” Lydia explained. Her voice came out like a whisper as the thought invaded her brain once again. Thinking about her grief. It was still fresh as they were trying to move on.

“Grief and loss, _mija_ ” the hunter ratified. “I wonder why, when you and your friends have suffered so much loss, you would risk it again for someone like Derek Hale.”

“Because we don’t like the lose” Stiles responded. And then there were voices over the radio telling the east and south was clear. Stiles knew after they told her about Scott, the hunters were looking for him but apparently Scott found them first. Because the north guard didn’t check in and someone else’s voice was heard over the radio.

“Stiles.” Stiles smiled in relief as they heard Scott’s voice over the radio and not some other Mexican hunter’s… “Take 10 off the table.”

With a smile, Stiles did as Scott told him to. Lydia looked at Araya. “Maybe you should just take the deal” she said confidently.

Araya laughed. “While I’m keen to follow the warning of a Banshee…” She placed her hands on the table once again and put some of her weight on her hands as she leaned in. “I’m going to have to decline.”

“Aaaa… Come on” Stiles quickly interfered as he was feeling a little nervous with each second Araya didn’t expect their offer. It felt like something was going really wrong. “Just give us Derek. You don’t want him anyway. Haven’t you noticed what a downer he is? No sense of humor, poor conversationalist... Just come on, take the money.”

Araya eyed them for a good minute and then reached for the walkie-talkie and took it to her lips with a smile and determination. “Severo?” she called, obviously pissed off and annoyed. “Show them how the Calaveras negotiate.”

Few moments later, Stiles and Lydia were locked up in Calavera’s storage unit, nowhere to go and nowhere to run.

When Scott opened his eyes after getting knocked by some kind of wolfsbane, he looked around and realized he was tied to an iron chair. He turned to his right and saw Lydia who was also tied to chair and then the hunters walked in, holding Kira close to them and, in that moment, Scott was definitely sure they were actually in trouble.

Severo forced Kira’s hand to stay on the mechanism that was connected to the vires and to Lydia and Scott’s chair. His deadly eyes looked at Scott and started talking. “So, let me explain what’s about to happen” he said. “This one, the fox, has an immunity to electricity. So, she’s going to turn the dial on the Alpha. If she doesn’t, I turn the dial on the Banshee.” Kira tried to free herself, telling them she’s not going to do it. She wasn’t going to hurt her friends, her boyfriend. But Severo grabbed her hand again and put it back on, pushing it on. “I see. Are you sure? One of your friends has the power to heal. The other? Not so much.”

“What are you doing?” Scott asked angrily, looking at Araya who he knew she was the leader of them. “Is this a game to you?”

“This is a test, _Lobito_ ” Araya corrected, her eyes on Scott. “Let’s see if you pass.” She walked inside the room, continued explaining. “We’re going to ask some questions. You answer them, nobody gets hurt. You don’t answer, we turn the dial.”

Scott looked at Kira, trying to comfort her. “Do what they say, okay?” he said with soft eyes, trying to comfort her. “Whatever they want. I can take it.”

Kira nodded, not wanting to do it but as Araya started talking, she had no choice. “So…” she started, pacing around. “We don’t know where Derek is. We want to find him as well.” She looked at Scott. “You know who took him.”

Scott’s eyes started to fill with shock, he knotted his eyebrows. “What?” he shouted. “How would I know that?”

Araya said it wasn’t an answer, told Kira to turn on the dial. It kept going like this. Even though Scott really didn’t know who took Derek, Araya didn’t believe that. She kept asking the question, she kept getting the same answer. Scott kept getting electrocuted. “Tell me!” the huntress shouted. “Who actually has Derek? Who had a reason, a vendetta particular to the Hales?” The level of electricity wondering inside Scott’s body was getting stronger, but he still shouted that he doesn’t know, panting as he was feeling the pain. “Oh, you don’t know because you haven’t figured it out yet!” she whispered sharply. “So, think! Who could’ve taken him? Who had the power? The power of a shapeshifter? Someone who could have turned without you knowing. Turned, but not by a bite!” Scott told her he didn’t know once again causing Araya to shout angrily. “ _Diez! Diez!”_ Araya pushed Kira away, turned the dial on to tenth base.

And the memories came floating like a river.

_**** “Can you get turned by a scratch?” Scott heard Kate asking as he was standing on the lacrosse field. Woman in her middle thirties looked at her brother Chris. They were at the school to watch the game but there was something bothering them._

_Chris frowned. “If the claws go deep enough,” Chris answered. Looked at his sister. “Yeah.”_ ****

Scott glowed his eyes red, breaking free from the chains as he was using his alpha power. He looked at the huntress. He finally knew the answer.

“Say the name Scott” Araya commanded, looking at the alpha.

Scott lifted his head up, took a deep breath. He whispered. “Kate.”

Stella gasped as she opened her eyes and gripped tight the arm of the couch she was sitting on. This sudden movement of hers got caught Max’s attention who was watching her from a far away. He was standing in front of the huge windows in the room they were in, staring at the London skyline with his arms crossed in front of his chest. He softly chuckled watching the young girl straighten up and rub her eyes as she was trying to get out of the dream’s… nightmare’s affect. “Wow” Max commented with an intense British accent. He had a gorgeous yet amazed grin on his face and a pants that were about to fall off from him. He was half naked as he took few steps towards the young girl. “You really can fall asleep fast.”

Stella sighed, pressed her lips together. Blinked few times, trying to calm herself down. She swallowed hard and parted her lips. “Because I can’t sleep at night” she murmured with a low voice but given that Max was an Alpha werewolf, Stella knew he heard her but couldn’t be more careless. Because he had no idea what happened in Beacon Hills. She hasn’t told him. She hasn’t told anyone. Max and the others thought she was only here to get help with her transformation. And Stella didn’t do a single thing to break that thought of theirs. Telling the incidents that occurred in Beacon Hills to someone else made Stella think that it would feel a lot more real than it already was. She was scared to feel that. She thought if she hasn’t told them about anything, it wouldn’t feel real.

But that wasn’t the case at all. 

Whenever she fell asleep, the nightmares were coming back but after everything… They were infinite times worse than what she’s been seeing ever since she was a little kid. It was about Allison, Aiden, being a Nogitsune, turning into a werewolf… But they were mostly about their deaths. She couldn’t forget about them. Even the pain she felt as she was getting the tattoo on her wrist and burning it so that it would stay forever failed to distract her mind.

Two A’s. Next to Each other. One for Aiden, one for Allison. To remember them forever, to remember to make them feel proud. As a reminder…

Stella blinked again as she heard Max’s voice. “Did you say something?” he asked curiously, looking at the young girl. He knew she said something. He was sure he heard something but, also, he knew Stella was a locked box who couldn’t be opened by anything. So, he might have as well asked that question for nothing.

It’s been almost two months since Stella came to London, seeking for help. Max has been working with her for the last two months. He was teaching her how to turn into an actual wolf and a werewolf and she was a quick learner. Being born like that obviously helped her a lot but she was more impressive than that.

Being a trained hunter was also a bonus for her and for Max’s pack as she helped them hide from a secret society of hunters.

But that wasn’t the reason Max was so impressed with Stella. She had this vibe that… Max couldn’t put his thought into words. There were no right words. He knew her only for two months and there were still more things to learn about her. She was strong. She was tough. Max knew that but he also knew how broken she was. He could just see it behind her brown eyes.

Stella shook her head no as she stood up from the couch and grabbed her bottle that had water in it. She took few sips from it and as she gulped the water down, she looked at Max. She tried to remember the dream she had that caused her to wake up like this but there was no recollection at all.

She put her bottle down on the ground, put her hair in a ponytail. She was sweating as she looked at Max. “Are we going to keep working?” she asked. She had to empty her brain and the good thing was that it wasn’t because of the voices or anything else. In London, there was nothing for her to use her banshee skills. There was no Darach, no Kanima, no Nogitsune that could ripped the most important people away from her.

In London, there was just nightmares of Beacon Hills.

Max shook his head. “No” he replied. He could see something was bothering her. They could continue it tomorrow. “I think you got this.” He smiled. “Just go over it for me really quick.”

Stella nodded confidently, parted her lips. “If you dream vividly that you’re turning to a wolf, your body follows and you become an actual wolf” she said, remembering the first thing Max told her as they started their lessons. Max smiled, confirming her. Stella continued. “And… And if I want to turn into a werewolf, I have to accept it. I have to give in…” Stella knew she heard those before. It was what Aiden and Ethan told Scott as they were trying to teach him how to roar as an Alpha. She took a deep breath, pushing the memory of them away. Her brown eyes found Max. “You know what? I’m too tired. We’ll continue this later.” She shook her head. “Did your pack find anything about La Loba?”

“Yeah, about that…” Max spoke up, crossing his arms in front of his chest. His green eyes were flickering as always when he was acting like an alpha, leader of his pack that he was very proud of. “The last place your mom has been seen was in Mexico. A church called La Iglesia.” He took a deep breath and before giving her a chance to talk, he continued because he still had things to tell her. “According to Mexican hunters she has someone with him. Someone she is holding captive.”

Stella frowned, knotted her brows as she kept looking at Max. “Okay, first of all…” she started, pulling her hand up, gesturing him to stop for a second. “How in the hell did your pack manage to get that information?”

Max grinned, put his arms out to both sides, pulled his shoulder up lightly, and tilted his head. For a second this gesture reminded her of Aiden but as she took a deep breath, she pushed the memory away and listened to Max. “If I got what I wanted and didn’t lose a pack member to do so…” Young man started, pressed his lips together, forming a confident and carefree smile. “… I really don’t care how I got the information.”

Stella smiled, nodding, and then moved onto the next question she had in mind. “Whatever you say Mr. Alpha.” She laughed jokingly and continued. “Okay, did your pack manage to find out who is she holding captive?” she asked. Her voice had a little bit of sarcasm and a high level of curiosity.

Max confirmed with a head nod. “Derek Hale.”

Stella raised her eyebrows in shock as she heard the name left Max’s lips. “Derek?” she repeated, not seeing any motive. Max nodded again, causing Stella murmur to herself as she was trying to think. “Why would my mom kidnap Derek?” Actually, she was talking to herself but hearing that, Max pouted and raised his eyebrows as he was asking ‘who knows’ with his facial expression.

“I don’t know” he shrugged and continued. “He is your father, right? Maybe she’s just trying to bring the family back together.” Stella rolled her eyes at Max’s joke as she cursed at the fact that she told him this conversation.

It was one of the few things Max knew about Beacon Hills. A month ago, her friends called her up to tell her about her father, but Stella already knew that. She knew that for a very long time, since the day they fought with Deucalion and the Alpha pack and they thought Derek was dead. Peter told her when she went to him to ask him about the fire. Actually, he implied. He didn’t use the words but after that, it wasn’t hard for Stella to put the pieces back together.

_**** “How did my mom know about where your house was?” Stella asked frowning as pacing up and down inside Derek’s loft. Peter was finally talking about the fire and she had so many questions that she was trying to find the answers to. “I mean…” She pointed Peter with her index finger. “You told me that no one knew where it was then. That you Hales were pretty lowkey. No one, not even the alphas knew. Only you.”_

_Peter nodded, pulled his arms to sides. He took a deep breath. “You see… 18 years ago…” he started; he was smiling but that smile was far away from being sincere. “Kate chose someone with a broken heart from the Hale house. Someone furious… Someone who’s been through a lot. She used him, made him believe her. She made him fall in love with her. That way, that young wolf told Kate everything about his family.” He looked at the young girl, continued. “Any guesses?”_

_“Derek” Stella found herself whispering. She remembered the story about Derek, Paige who was his girlfriend who he had to kill. Stella heard this before from Stiles but just few minutes ago Peter repeated as he was trying to get Stella to understand. Stella knew in his state of mind, it made sense that Derek trusted Kate. He was broken, sad, and angry. But she was still shocked as she only knew Post-Paige Derek. Her brown eyes found Peter, wide open. “Derek and my mom?”_

_“Scott is not the first wolf to climb into a hunter’s bed, Stella” Peter nodded, looking at Stella with a grin. He was still trying to make her to see the obvious facts here. God knows, she may have already, but it was just a lot easier for her to play dumb in a situation like this._

_Stella sighed. “I get what you’re trying to say, Peter” she murmured after staying silent for a long time. Stella was 17. Her mother was 20 when she had Stella. The house burned down 11 years ago. And if it all happened… If Kate met Derek 18 years ago… There were new questions forming in her head, but the timeline just fit perfectly as she knew the things Chris told her. Stella let out a soft breath between her lips. “But there is no way I’m a Hale.”_

_Peter laughed. “There is nothing wrong with being a Hale, Stella” he responded to her. “It just comes and bites you in the ass if you run away from it.”_

_“You’re just being ridiculous right now” Stella said, laughing in frustration. She turned around and made her way to the door. There was no way in hell that she was going to stick around and listen to his crap any longer. “I’m done here, Peter.”_

_But Peter had different plan as he parted his lips. “You can’t run away from the truth Stella!” he shouted behind her. “It won’t let you go.” ****_

“If she wanted to bring the family back together…” Stella said, snapping out of her memories and reached for the jacket laying around on the couch. She had no idea how Max was standing topless, not that she was complaining but in the other hand, London was still too cold for Stella even for a girl who lived in New York. After all, she was born in California. “She could’ve come to London, not to a church that doesn’t even have God in it.”

Max laughed at her expression, shaking his head in disbelief. Then his eyes found her, between his eyebrows wrinkled up. “Are you going back to Beacon Hills?” he asked, not sure what he wanted the answer to be.

“Yeah, but not yet” she responded, sighed as she felt the need to explain herself. She put on the jacket, wrapped her arms around herself. “I still have few details on my plan that I have to work on.” To be honest, Stella didn’t really have a plan. She just had the need to find her mother to get the answers to her questions since she was the only one who had the real and right answers. “And besides, she has to go back to Beacon Hills first.”

“How are you so certain that she is going back?” Max curiously questioned.

“Because I know my mother” Stella said calmly. Her brown eyes were on Max as she continued. She thought about Kate’s motives, her memories in Beacon Hills. “I can guess what her next step is going to be.”

“Okay, I’ll ask” Malia said, breaking the silence inside the jeep. Scott was in the passenger seat; Stiles was driving the car. Malia was sitting in the back with Lydia and Kira as they were headed to La Iglesia, following Braeden there after their little adventure with the Calaveras. Araya told Scott that she sent four of their hunters and none of them came back and then decided to send them there, thinking that maybe they could pull it off but there was an awkward silence in the jeep which Malia decided to cut as she leaned in between the front seats. “Who’s Kate Argent?”

Kira slowly and shyly pulled her hand up. “Uh…” she murmured. “I’d like to know, too.”

“Well, we were at her funeral” Stiles added as he kept driving the car, following Braeden’s bike in front of them. “So, I’d like to know how she got out of a casket that was buried six feet underground.”

Lydia was keeping her silent as bad memories were playing in her mind, watching the road flew by like a movie strip. Meanwhile Scott turned his head to the left slightly, looking at Stiles. “She was never in it” he explained, causing Malia and Kira to knot their eyebrows and look at Scott in confusion, but Lydia was the one who spoke afterwards, explaining.

“Kate was Allison’s aunt and Stella’s mother” Lydia said. She softly moved her brows and looked out the window to the endless desert around them. “And a total sociopath.”

Scott closed his eyes with grief as he heard the Argent Girls’ names.

Allison’s death was something Scott was still recovering from. It still hurt like hell. The thought of not being able to help Stella hurt like hell. She left town without telling anyone except for Stiles and Scott was blaming himself for it. He was blaming himself for Allison’s death. He thought maybe… maybe if he were fast enough to come to the battlefield, he could have saved Allison. She would still be with them… they would still be with them. Both of them… He didn’t know if he could do anything about Aiden but if he could’ve saved Allison, she would’ve helped her cousin.

But Scott failed. Stella never was a part of his pack, he knew that. She told him that several times, but he always saw her as a sister. He saw the broken part of her soul from the first day at the first dinner he had with the Argents when she was too busy arguing with her mother. He saw her and, somehow, he knew she was going to be someone important in his life. He promised himself to protect her, but he failed.

That’s why she wasn’t with them now. Both of them…

Kira saw Scott’s pain. She saw the way he closed his eyes. She sighed, hated seeing him like that… She hated seeing the man she loved sad. “You don’t have to talk about it now if you don’t want to” young girl said softly, trying to comfort him.

“Um, yes, he does” Melisa protested, looking at Kira and then Scott.

“Yeah, she’s right” Scott agreed, few moments of silence later. “You guys should know.” He looked at Kira and Malia, turning around as much as he could. “You need to know.”

“Alright” Stiles said, starting to tell the story as he knew talking about it caused Scott more pain. He tried to help out his friend. “Kate was the one who set the fire that killed most of Derek’s family.”

Kira frowned as her and Malia looked at Stiles. They just started the story and it was already confusing as hell. “You told us Kate is Stella’s mother and Derek is her father” she repeated the information she knew.

“Yeah, they are” Scott confirmed, taking a deep breath, nodding.

“Okay, as far as we know which is not much…” Stiles said, taking over again. He sighed, continued. “Kate and Derek had a little fling when he was around 16-17. That’s how she knew about them anyway. But for some reason that we don’t know, she waited 6 years to start the fire. Derek and his sister Laura were outside, came back to find their families burning alive.” He took a deep breath. “And after that, when Stella was 7, Kate and she moved away from Beacon Hills.”

“Any survivors?” Kira asked, trying to sink in all the information. As she tried to picture what Stella’s been through, she had a hard time, but she tried to stay in the present.

“Some of them survived” Scott answered Kira. “Like Cora, and Peter.”

“A very angry Peter” Lydia corrected him, remembering their first introduction as Peter left her to die on the Lacrosse field.

“Yeah” Scott said, reliving the memories. “He’s the one who bit and turned me.”

“And the one who finally caught up to Kate and killed her” Lydia added, still watching the road.

“And we saw her buried” Stiles said, still driving.

“No.” Scott turned his head to look at his best friend. “We saw a casket, remember? She wasn’t in it.” He paused to catch a breath, looked ahead, watching the road from the wind shield. He continued explaining. “The Calaveras heard that Kate had been killed by an Alpha’s claws. They wanted to make sure she was really dead.” He paused again for a split second. “Her body was healing. More and more, as she got closer to a full moon. She was coming back. So, they switched out the bodies.” He softly exhaled. “If a hunter is bit, they have to take their own life before they change. The Calaveras… they treat the code like law. They make it their responsibility to enforce it.”

“Good for her” Malia praised, looking at Scott as he told them how she escaped and didn’t kill herself. “I wouldn’t do it either.”

“Would you kill half a dozen people to get out?” Scott questioned but didn’t wait for Malia’s answer. “Because that’s what she did.”

“So, Kate’s a werewolf now?” Kira asked, slightly leaning forward.

“I don’t know” Scott responded. He took a deep breath as he remembered something a year back. “When Jackson was a Kanima, Stella came here to stay. After her mother supposedly died, she was supposed to live here but for some reasons, in the middle of the semester, she went back to France. Before she did, we had a chance to talk. She helped me with Gerard and warned me about him. She gave me an idea about what to do and she said something. She said that sometimes the shape you take reflects the person you are.”

“What kind of shape is sociopathic bitch?” Lydia asked sarcastically and the minute question left her lips, the jeep got hit by something, shaking it strongly. Stiles hit the breaks, stopped the car and everyone quickly got out as they all tried to understand what the hell was that.

“What happened?” Braedon asked as she got off from her bike and walked up to them. The woman had a claw mark across her face, a gift from Deucalion…

“I don’t know” Stiles shouted for her to hear him. Meanwhile, Scott was looking around at the jeep trying to see what happened and if there was something wrong. “It felt like we hit something.”

“Scott, we need to get there by night” Braedon reminded, looking at the alpha. She was in hurry and she had every reason to do so. “It’s too dangerous otherwise.”

Scott stopped, thinking what he was supposed to do. He looked at Stiles who gestured him to go. Scott shook his head. “Not without you” he rejected.

Hearing that, Stiles walked up to his best friend. “Dude, someone needs to find Derek or one of us is going to call Stella to tell the bad news. Now I don’t know about you but I don’t feel like giving her another bad news” young man said and watched the realization hit Scott. “You go. We’ll figure something out. We always do. Just go.”

Scott had to pause for a split second, thinking his options but then he nodded, knowing everything Stiles said was right. He sighed. “Okay” he confirmed and then hopped on behind Braedon, let her ride them to the Church.

Stiles parked the car over the hill, with the view of the Church as Braeden and Scott were approaching them. Scott was carrying Derek and Stiles seeing that, he quickly got out of the jeep and ran to them with girls following him behind but then Stiles saw something else. Some bizarre things that caused him to freeze on his spot. He was looking at man they were carrying and trying to put a meaning to this, but he could feel his brain was giving errors. It didn’t make any sense. “Oh, my God” he whispered, his hazel eyes were still on them.

“Is that him?” Malia asked, looking at Stiles. “Is that Derek?”

Stiles didn’t know what to say, he was still looking at Derek. “Uh, sort of” Stiles managed to say. Derek lifted his head up, looking exhausted but not just exhausted. There was something highly wrong with him. Because he wasn’t the Derek they met.

He was back to his youth.

“That is a kid. He looks a lot younger than Stella,” Malia said, confused as hell. Her eyes were coming and going between Derek and Stiles who was also shocked, still looking at the young Derek. “How can he be her father? What happened to him?”

“I, uh…” Stiles murmured, his eyes found Scott. “I don’t know.”


	2. HOMECOMING

“Alright, guys, we have to tell her now” Lydia interrupted them as they were talking about what their next step was going to be. They were all standing near the yellow school busses, looking at each other at the school parking lot. It was a normal day in Beacon Hills. Meaning another day with sociopaths coming back from the dead.

And even thinking about it just showed how weird their lives were.

Few days ago, Kate brought Derek back to his youth just to trick him. Scott and the others found him in a church called La Iglesia. Young Derek couldn’t remember anything. Kate took this young Derek to the Hale vault underneath the High school and took an object that could help her focus and control her inner jaguar. Meanwhile they got attacked by some bone men called Berserkers. Derek came to the rescue, turned back during the fight but something was different. His eyes weren’t glowing blue anymore. It was closer to the amber color. Oh, also, during all the chaos, someone stole 150 million dollars from the vault which belonged to Peter.

Yeah, just another normal week in Beacon Hills.

“I know” Scott said with a deep breath, but he didn’t sound so sure as he thought about it. In theory, yes, they should’ve called Stella and let her know that Kate, her mother was alive but there was something bothering and stopping him from ever calling her about this.

“Then why aren’t we?” Lydia shouted. They were standing between the two school busses with the pack so that no one was able to see them. Topic of the day was telling Stella the truth or not and to some of them, it wasn’t even a question. “Scott, it’s been almost a week since we found out about Kate being alive.” She lowered her voice, kept looking at the alpha. “We have to tell her.”

“What if she already knows?” Kira asked curiously. They’ve been through the same with Derek. Kira’s eyes moved around on her friends. “I mean… She already knew about Derek. She knew he was her father. What if she knows her mother being alive as well?”

“Yeah, but if she knew, wouldn’t she be here?” Scott questioned, pulling his hands to sides. “She knows Kate better than any of us. She’d have known Kate would come here.”

Lydia sighed, looked at Scott. “She lost her cousin and the man she loved, Scott” she softly murmured. She bit her lip, slightly shook her head. “You lost one person. Only one. But she lost two in two days in a row. You talked to Derek about this. Even he said that he never saw Stella like that. That desperate and that vulnerable... Even if it’s about her mom coming back, I don’t think she’ll ever want to step foot in Beacon Hills. But still…” She paused, caught her breath, and looked at the alpha. “We need her. So many things are happening, and we need her here.”

“Okay but what’s going to happen even if she doesn’t know her mother is alive?” Scott asked this time, raising his eyebrows. “Is she going to come here and help us with a plan that will most probably kill her? If nothing works and we can’t stop her, we’re going to have to kill her. I mean… Is she really going to help us?”

“We still have to tell her” Malia interrupted. She knew Stella. After she transformed back to human, Stella always visited her, and she thought Stella deserved to hear the truth even if she knew it herself. “If I were her, I’d want you guys to tell me.”

Kira, Scott, Stiles and Lydia looked at each other for a split second and then back to Malia as being the ones who still haven’t told her about who her actual father was. And to clear the thoughts away, Stiles quickly parted his lips. Took a deep breath. “Alright” he said underneath the breath. “But she is in London. Do you have any idea how much it would cost California to London?” he asked, his hands moving around in the air. Scott nodded, agreeing with him. Both of their families were having a rough time financially. Stiles’ dad was getting bills from Eichen House and the hospital. Scott’s house had no electricity and there were lots of things that needed fixing, including the roof.

“Fine” Lydia sighed, took out her phone from her purse and handed it over to Stiles. “Call her from me.”

Stella’s lips were moving on Max’s as she was sitting on his lap on the bed. Her hair was a mess, her t-shirt was on the floor and the same applied to Max, but both didn’t care as they kept making out. Max’s hands were moving on Stella’s back, feeling his _manhood_ getting harder.

They were taking things slow, there was no rush as Max’s lips wondered to her neck. Stella threw her head back, exposing her neck to Max’s lips, moaning with pleasure and then her phone started ringing. The alpha werewolf smirked. “Voicemail” he whispered to her skin, and Stella meant to do that as she was pretty occupied with the British werewolf under her but then her eyes caught the caller ID. _Ariel._

As she frowned and pulled herself away from Max, she heard him whine in frustration. Stella giggled softly but kept looking at her black phone on the nightstand, not sure what she was going to do. It was Lydia calling and Stella felt guilty, leaving Beacon Hills without telling them and not calling them at all afterwards. She didn’t even talk to them when they called her to tell her that Derek was her father. It was Stiles who did the talking and then as they said goodbye, the call was done. That was it.

Max squeezed her arm gently, pulling her away from her thoughts. “Hey” he whispered, feeling sexually frustrated as he was uncomfortable, but he could also see the dilemma and the conflict Stella was going through at the moment. He felt like he had to be there mentally and not sexually. “Stella, are you okay?”

“Yeah,” she managed to murmur. “Yeah, I, uh…” She climbed off from his lap. She grabbed her t-shirt and after putting it on, she grabbed her phone and before making her way to the door to go outside, she looked at Max as she was apologizing. “I have to take this call.” Max softly nodded and watched her leave.

And the minute she left the room, Stella picked up the call. She took the phone up to her ear. But before even she could say hello, the voice on the other line spoke. “Stella.”

Hearing that voice, Stella paused in shock. It wasn’t Lydia.

“Stilinski?” she asked as she started walking again. She went outside the building and sat on one of the benches, looking at the dark sky. She sighed. “What happened? Why are you calling me at this late? You know, the time zones are pretty different between California and London, so it’s not noon for me.”

“Uh, yeah, I know but I had to call you because I have something that I have to tell you” Stiles said nervously and cautiously. As Stiles was talking, the others were listening to him, watching him because if she didn’t know, it wasn’t going to be that pretty.

Stella sighed. “Is this going to leave a bomb affect like the thing Derek being my father?” she asked curiously and then added. “Or at least are you planning to because that one failed. I already knew that.” Stella frowned, she wondered what could this call be for?

“It’s going to leave a nuclear affect if you don’t know” Stiles answered the young girl nervously. Stella murmured, telling him to continue. Hearing that, Stilinski took a deep breath before starting to speak. “Your mom… She is, uh… She is alive.”

“My mom?” Stella said in shock, raised her eyebrows. “My mom who I went her funeral to?”

Stella kept her voice shocked, but her expression was confused. She had no idea how they found out about it. Maybe Kate went to Beacon Hills way before Stella predicted it but for the moment, she ignored it and decided to play it off. Her plan was to stay secret as she searched for her mother. She wasn’t planning to let anyone know that she was coming back to Beacon Hills as well. There was stuff she had to figure out and she had to do them alone. At least for the time being.

Stiles confirmed her; Stella took another deep breath. “If you’re calling me without any proof Stilinski-”

“No, no. We, uh, we saw her” Stiles interrupted. He quickly took a breathed and as he was looking at his friends nervously, he kept talking. “She turned Derek back to his youth and we had to deal with that for a while. It was annoying and confusing. Of course, now he is, uh, Derek we all know but she is alive, and you can ask Derek if you’d like to.”

Stella had to pause with all the information that was new even to her. She really didn’t expect Stiles to tell her that, that Derek was back to being a teenager for few days and turned back to his old grown up sour self.

Apparently, Kate was back to Beacon Hills way before than she expected her to.

“She did what now?” Stella repeated, frowning in confusion. “Derek was back to being a scrappy teenager?” Stiles told her everything that happened for the last few days, starting with the day they found Derek in the Church. “Alright” Stella said stretching the word as it felt awkward. “It’s good that I didn’t see Derek in my age, that would be just awkward.” Then she sighed, rested her back to the bench. She slowly bit her lip, looked around for a second. “I mean, I still have few things to do here. I’m helping out the wolf pack here with… something. I’m not sure if I ever can come to Beacon Hills.” She sighed again, smiled softly. “But thank you for telling me Stilinski.”

“Yeah” Stiles murmured and then parted his lips again. “Hey, you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah” she said. “But I have to go now. Tell them I say hi.” And then without telling something else, she hung up the phone, watched the moon as she was thinking it was not much longer until the full moon.

“So, how did it go?” Lydia asked curiously, taking her phone back. She was looking at Stiles who had a frown on his face as something was bothering him.

He looked at the banshee. “It felt like… It was almost like she knew about her mother” Stiles said, continued. “I mean, she didn’t know about what happened to Derek, but I think she knew about her mother being alive.” He held the back of his neck nervously, worried about Stella. “But I don’t know. She sounded weird. Besides, I’m not even sure she’d ever come back to Beacon Hills.”

“But we shouldn’t be surprised about this, right?” Kira thought out loud, looking at her friends. She shrugged and continued. “I mean… Stella was always one step ahead of us, ahead of everything. And most of the time, she figured out the problem way before. Besides, we get why she doesn’t want to come back to Beacon Hills.”

“Yeah” Scott murmured, knowing everything Kira has said. “But we need her. We really need her.” Stiles knotted, was about to ask him a question but he got cut by the school bell that reached to them. Scott looked at the school and then back at his friends. “Alright, guys, let’s head back to the classes. We’ll talk about this later.”

As they walked inside the building, the thoughts in their heads were running wild with anxiety.

“Hey.” A woman’s voice soft voice with a British accent reached to Stella as she kept sitting on the bench outside with her hands on her lap instead of going back inside. It was closing down to 3 AM and Stella felt just too exhausted to go back to Max when her friend here Dani approached to her, sat right next to her. “Where have you been?” she asked with a smile. “You weren’t fooling around with my brother again, were you? Please say no and save me from the images of nightmare.”

Stella laughed, and raised her eyebrows playfully. “He has some skills, Dani” she said. “You should be proud.”

Dani grimaced, shaking her head to get rid of the horrible images. “I am scarred for life, Ella” she said, disgusted. “Please, stop. I don’t need this in my life.”

Stella smiled. “I’m just joking” she said, hitting her from her shoulder slowly. “But yeah, we were kind of passing time.”

“Gross” she commented, shook her in disgust again and then continued. “What happened?”

“I, uh, I got a call” she said, not feeling like talking.

“From?” Dani pushed, stretching the word as she waited for an answer.

“Stiles.” Another one worded answer.

“From Beacon Hills?” Stella nodded, confirming. Dani paused, raising her eyebrows. “Mama Mia” she managed to say and then turned to look at Stella. Those two grown to be friends, close friends since Stella first came to London and Jackson introduced them. Stella didn’t tell anything to her either, but Dani was a smart girl and she found out few things on her own, Stella just had to confirm her. “What did they tell you now?”

Stella shrugged. “Nothing I already didn’t know” she replied, looked down at her hands and her phone. “But I think I have to go back sooner than I thought. My mother is being a pain in the ass, and I-” She stopped as she saw the way her friend was looking at her. She knotted her eyebrows, looked at her back. “What?” she asked, confused. “Dani, you have that look on your face.”

Dani’s expression changed for a second but to only add confusion to that look. “What look?”

“The Look that you and your brother mastered at, the look that you both don’t usually use on me” she explained but then paused. “Well, at least he doesn’t really use on me. You, in the other hand…”

“Please explain the look to me” Dani said.

“The look that says _I think you are dumb, and I totally don’t agree with you_ ” Stella explained. Dani moved her eyebrows knowing and agreeing with the young Argent. And then Stella continued, looking at her with soft eyes. “Daniela. Tell me what you think.”

“Alright” Dani said, straightened up and looked at Stella. She looked firm and determined as she parted her lips. “Do you remember the first day, first week you came to London from that hell hole?” Stella pressed her lips together. Of course, she remembered. She remembered the sleepless nights and her anxiety. Nothing was changed and everything was still the same but at least she wasn’t like _that._ “You were a total wreck and I’m saying this in the nicest and most optimistic way possible. I am talking about nightmares, panic attacks, uncontrollably shifting in the middle of the night kind of wreck. You didn’t even tell me all about your cousin and that guy… Do you know how I found out about it? It was easy. The only reason I don’t know their names is that I didn’t want to push you.” Dani took a breath. She was worried about her friend and she had to make sure she was okay. “In Beacon Hills, you lost your cousin. There, you lost your family, you lost the love of your life… First man you’ve ever loved… You were alone, broken, defeated…” She licked her lips before she continued again. “But here, you made new connections, new friends along with the old ones here. You learned how to control your inner wolf.”

“Dani, what are you trying to say?” she asked, knowing exactly what she was saying but she needed to hear her say it out loud.

“What I’m trying to say is that…” She sighed, parted her lips. “Maybe you should pack it in.” Stella raised her eyebrows, listening to her friend. “Maybe…” Dani tilted her head, looking at the young Argent. “Maybe you should control the wolf in you and start a new life away from the whole supernatural mess that you’re clearly dragging yourself into every single time.”

Stella chuckled, tried to joke it off. “With your brother?” she asked, raising her eyebrows. “Are you okay with that?”

Dani pulled her shoulders up, playing along for a second. “Ehh” she said. “You do make a great couple even without being one so…” She smiled, looking at her. “He is a choice.”

Stella pressed her lips together, making them a straight line. “It’s my mother that’s trying to kill my friends. Again” she said, shaking her head. Dani saw her that she already made her mind and there was no way changing it back. “It’s my responsibility, Dani.” She shook her head, determined. “I have to do something about it.”

“It’s your call Argent” Dani said, straightening up. Her green eyes flickered with compassion and understanding. She put her hand on her shoulder. “I can’t really say anything nor change your mind. You know what I think. I’m pretty sure Max thinks the same way. We’ve gotten pretty used to you. And… There you have misery and psychopath killers running after you and Scott McCall’s pack but here… You can have a fresh start.” But then she moved her eyebrows. “But I do get your point. I don’t think I would act any different if it were me.” She looked Stella. “When are you leaving?”

Stella wetted her lips with her tongue moving on her lower lip. “I still have few things to do here and help you with the stupid British society of hunters…” Stella rolled her eyes as she thought about them but pushed her thoughts away and continued. “And then…”

As Dani nodded, they stood there for a moment under the moonlight.

*******

Stella stepped outside the airport, taking the California air in and as she gave it out back, she looked around the people walking with their baggage. She sighed as the bad memories of Beacon Hills, Allison and Aiden’s bodies falling to the ground wounded and dying floated back to her mind. She closed her eyes, gulped down. She could feel the keys in her pocket were dragging her down with how heavy they felt.

One of them belonged to their apartment, before they moved away. Chris sent her the key in case she would need it and the memories she had with Allison there, their last Argent Girls day was just so heavy on her shoulders. Actually, Stella meant to buy the first house that Allison ever lived in Beacon Hills just because she didn’t want anyone to make more memories after Allison there. It was a sick and broken thought that she talked herself out of it.

And the other key was the key that Ethan left for her before he went away. He didn’t even see her or called her. He just shipped the key to her with a note that said this:

**_I thought you may want that. I didn’t touch his stuff and it was a family house so I couldn’t bring myself to sell it. I’m sorry I left without saying anything, but I couldn’t bear to stay here any longer. I know you understand and… I’m sorry Argent._ **

**_\- Dog #2_ **

Stella remembered crying more as she read the note and feeling alone. She didn’t have the strength to go to that house and she got the key the day she left Beacon Hills anyway.

Stella knew she couldn’t stay in both of those houses. She was feeling like drowning even with the thought of it. That’s why she called Derek and asked him if he could pick her up from the airport. Derek told her it was fine and offered her to stay with them.

That conversation was five days ago. And no one knew that she was coming back except for Derek. Which she’d like to keep it like that for a little while.

“I’m back to Beacon Hills again, God…” She murmured, squeezing the straps of her bag with her anxiety rising inside her. She thought maybe Dani was right and she could go back but then she saw the black jeep and Derek waiting for her in the car and knew it was too late to go back. She walked up to the jeep, put her bag on the backseat and sat on the front, on the passenger seat. She let out a soft breath between her lips. “Thanks for picking me up.”

Derek shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal as he started the car. “You wanted no one else know you were back” he responded, getting the car on the road. Stella pressed her lips together, watched trees on the sideways. “Besides… I know how hard it is for you to come back. Considering the reason why you left and the reason why you are back.”

“So, it wasn’t because your fatherhood kicked in?” Stella said teasingly as she decided to joke it off since she felt like they both needed it. She remembered the little awkward conversation they had when Derek called her. And then she called him to ask her to pick her up from the airport. These were the only times they have spoken after everyone found out about their situation. But it was okay. She smiled as Derek looked at her for a split second and laughed, his eyes focused on the empty road again.

“I’d never thought in a million years that I was a father” he responded with a smile.

Stella wrinkled up her lips, raised her eyebrows as she turned to look at the man who was driving the car. “I’d never thought in a million years that you were my father.” Then she shrugged and looked outside the window. “We’re not that kind of people, ha?” She looked at Derek who was slowly nodding his head. “How about we just stick to our previous relationship? We keep things the way they were?”

Derek smiled, agreed with her, and kept driving to the loft.

“Look who decided to come back to town.” When she heard Peter’s annoying voice, she was just stepping inside the loft with Derek by her side. Peter raised his eyebrows mocking as he saw them together. He smiled. “Oh, are you guys spending some quality father-daughter time?” Stella sent him a fake smile, walking inside, and throwing her bag to the couch. Peter’s eyes went back and forth between the bag and Stella and then he quickly looked at Derek, pointing the young Argent. “She is staying here with us?”

“No one is supposed to know I’m here just yet” Stella answered in Derek’s place as she walked inside the loft. She threw herself onto the couch, stretched her legs out and as she shrugged and smiled teasingly again, she looked at Peter. “So, yes, roommate.” Derek tilted his head down, hiding his smile but then he got serious as he felt Peter was looking at him in disbelief.

He crossed his arms in front of his chest, tilted his head back up and looked at his uncle. “She is one of the helps we’re gonna get as we look for Kate” Derek explained but it didn’t affect Peter at all. He kept looking at him with his eyebrows raised up, wrinkling his forehead up in disbelief.

“What makes you think _she_ …” The way he said ‘she’ sounded like he was almost underestimating her, but Derek and Stella knew he really shouldn’t have. Stella rolled her eyes, Peter kept talking. “… can find Kate?” he finished his question, pointing the girl on the couch. He walked towards Derek with slow steps. “And where will she be sleeping? I suggest her and you to find another place if her arrival is supposed to be secret because let me remind you if you forgot, this is a pretty hot spot for Scott and the others.”

“Okay, Peter” Stella interrupted him as she stood up and looked at him. “First of all, I’m Kate’s daughter and a freaking Argent. Not just a Hale, alright?” She laughed, frustrated. “You, of all people, don’t want to question my ability to track people.” She paused for a second, took a breath and continued. “And second of all, you may be right about this loft being hot spot for Scott, but they never go upstairs where I know there is a room. They always stay down here.” She was done talking but then she noticed something else. She quickly turned to look at Derek. “Wait a second… What do you mean one of the helps? Who else did you find?”

The minute Stella asked this question, the door slid open and a woman appeared in front of the door. She was a brunette, dark skinned girl who was covered in a black outfit. There was a claw mark, starting on her chin down to her neck. Stella who she was. She was a mercenary and the woman who saved Isaac from the Alpha pack, ended up getting that scar on her face.

She breathed in, pressed her lips together and murmured frustratedly. “Braeden.”

Braedon put her black boots on the coffee table relaxed as she didn’t care about anything else. Derek and Peter were on couch, sitting near each other while Stella was sitting on the top of the table in front of the large windows, watching them for a distance.

“That table’s Italian” Peter said, looking at Braedon annoyed. His eyes moved between the boots on the table and back to her face. Stella knotted her eyebrows as she was sitting on the table, swinging her feet crossed. She was looking at Peter.

“So are these boots” Braeden reacted, teasingly. Derek tilted his head down, grinned at her answer as he enjoyed Braedon roasting Peter who was getting more annoyed.

Meanwhile despite Derek, Stella didn’t even hide her smile. She laughed, raised her brows looking at their direction. “I take back what I said before” she said, shaking her head. “I like this girl.”

Peter rolled his eyes; Derek kept smiling; Braedon raised her eyebrows with a grin and looked at Peter. “So, are going to talk interior designing fashion or we going to talk numbers?” she asked. Since she was a mercenary, they had to give her money.

Peter let out a sharp breath from his nose angrily and leaned into the table. He grabbed some pen and paper, put down a number and slid this paper to Braeden. Stella’s eyes were mostly on Braeden and Peter but then she sniffed, catching Derek’s chemo signals. She turned to look at him. He was looking down at his reflection from sunglasses as he was nervous and somehow sad and confused.

Stella frowned in confusion, looking at him.

Braeden looked at the number Peter offered to her, grabbed the pen, and ruled out his offer. She wrote another number down, passed the paper to Peter. He took a look at the paper, causing his eyes to wide openly as he looked at the number. He lifted his head up, looked at Braeden. “We’re hiring you to find Kate…” Peter said, looked again on the amount of money Braeden asked for them to find the were-jaguar. And then his eyes found the mercenary again. “… not assassinate the president.”

Stella couldn’t see what she wanted from them but guessed it was pretty high.

“I was hired by the Calaveras to find Kate” Braeden told him, looking at Peter with a straight face, like she couldn’t be more unbothered. “You’re hiring me to find her first. Going against the Calaveras is what’s going to cost you.”

Peter looked down at the number once again, wrote another, way lower number and tossed it back to her. Braeden smiled, not breaking the eye contact, tossed it back to him without even looking at the number.

Peter stood up with frustration as Derek took the paper between his hands, ripped it apart and looked at the young woman. “We’ll pay” Derek said, causing Peter to quickly turned to him in disbelief. Stella jumped off the table but stayed near it as she leaned back to it. “Just find Kate. That’s all we want.”

Peter slid the door closed angrily and loudly after Braeden and looked at Derek with the same amount of anger. “Are you insane!?” he shouted as he questioned his mentality. Stella was now laying down on the couch, her shoes on the _Italian_ coffee table as Derek placed his hands on the table facing the window and put half of his weight to his hands.

“We don’t have a choice” he answered, a lot calmer than Peter. “We spent a week looking for her and came up with nothing.” He didn’t sound firm, but he wasn’t soft either. He was determined. “We have Stella now, but we need every help we can possibly get.”

“If we don’t find out who told Kate about the vault, we don’t get those bonds back!” Peter said, walking towards Derek. He was furious. “What do you think I’m gonna do then, huh? Get a job? My resume is slightly out of date.” He stood right behind Derek and shouted again. “We got robbed, Derek. Robbed!” He forced Derek to turn to look at him, but Derek quickly grabbed his wrist, glowed his eyes and roared at him. Stella straightened up as she noticed the change in Derek. She stood up, knotted her eyebrows. Peter stepped back, surprised. “Oh, that’s a new look for you.”

As Derek pulled his hand back, Stella approached them and parted her lips. “What the hell happened to your eyes?” she asked curiously. She was pretty certain that his eyes were supposed to be glowing blue. Like hers… But as Derek glowed his eyes with the color of amber, Stella couldn’t believe Stiles that he left this tiny detail out.

“I don’t know” Derek answered the young girl, sounding sharp and defensive. “But I’m willingly to pay to find out.”

That’s when Stella understood why Derek was okay to pay Braeden that much. Kate was the one who did this to him. It was her mother.

It was three or four hours later when Stella snapped out of her trance, hearing Peter’s confused question. “What in the holly hell are you doing?” She quickly dropped her pen, watching it fall to the ground and rolled away. Her brown eyes found Peter’s confused and annoyed blue eyes, and then she looked around. It was night, the moon light was shining through the large windows onto her. 

And Derek was nowhere to be seen.

Stella frowned as she felt her heart started beating again, hearing the sound of her pen dropping to the floor echoing through her mind. Peter was looking down on the notebook, a lot more confused than before. He pointed the weird writing. “What the hell is that?”

Stella looked down at the notebook. She had no idea what was written on there. They looked like some kind of code and Stella didn’t even remember writing them. She remembered she grabbed it to sketch somethings to clear her mind but now… The things on there were giving her a headache. It was meaningless and confusing.

But Stella knew what was happening.

She quickly closed the notebook down, taking a deep breath. Her heart started pounding as she remembered the things Dani told her once again, but it was too late to go back now. She leaned back to the chair and brushed her back as she murmured, gulping. “It’s starting again.”


	3. THE BENEFACTOR

“Alright…” She looked up and saw Derek walking towards her. It’s been couple of days since she came back to Beacon Hills. During that time, she looked for her mother everywhere. She looked under every rock. She went to places she was last seen, but there was nothing. But she still had one place to look, one person to talk to but as Derek sat right next to her, she pushed everything away like she was doing with the thing she wrote on that notebook. “How are you feeling?” he asked, looking at Stella.

“I don’t know” she responded, shrugging. She licked her lips, sighed. “I haven’t seen the others yet.”

Hearing that Derek was surprised, confused. He knotted his eyebrows. “Are you…” He paused for a split second. “Are you blaming them for what happened?” he asked, causing Stella to raise her eyebrows in disbelief.

She quickly turned her head to look at her father. “What?” she yelled in surprise. “Of-of course not!” She shook her head, looking down at her hands. She knew who she blamed, and it wasn’t Scott and his pack. “I, uh… I kind of blame myself for leaving without saying anything.” She pressed her lips together, shrugged one shoulder sadly and looked at Derek again. “It wasn’t their fault, what happened in the Oak Creek and at the school that day. It wasn’t. It was no one’s fault.”

“They understand the reason why you left Beacon Hills” Derek comforted her, placed his elbows on his legs and leaned into it as he looked at Stella.

Hearing that, young girl took a deep breath as she gave it out as her eyes looked at Derek thankfully. “I hope so” she smiled and then brushed her hair back. She straightened back, sighed. “You said you have to tell me something about Scott? Honestly, I only understood Liam and hospital and I have no idea who’s that supposed to be.”

Derek took a deep breath before he told her what happened.

The other day, Stella was pulling her car in front of the Calavera’s house with a deep breath. She hated being in Mexico right now. She hated being here by herself, all alone. She hated the plan she had in her mind. She hated the fact that she had to talk Araya. She hated being here without Allison.

But she had to find her mother. And she had to start from somewhere valid and Araya Calavera was the right point to start.

Ever since she came back to Beacon Hills, all she’s been doing was look for her mother but then she wrote those weird coded stuff without even knowing and she lost her mind with them, trying to understand the meaning behind them.

But there was nothing she could find so far.

Stella climbed out of her car, sighed as she looked around. Everyone was minding their own business as they were walking around, talking. Stella brushed her hair back and took a deep breath as she walked up to the building with the guards in the front and a big gate. Seeing her, the guards asked what she wanted with their facial expression adversely.

“ _Escuché que hay una fiesta_ ” Stella said, raising her eyebrows. Two guards looked at each other, not sure what to do but then behind their black glasses, their eyes found Stella and nodded her to get in.

Stella smiled as she walked inside, and the door closed behind her loudly.

She walked through the dancing bodies and hardly reached to the bar and as she sat on an empty stool, she took a deep breath and gave it out. She felt exhausted just by walking here. Right when she was about to turn to the bartender, someone put a shot glass full of tequila in front of her, leaving her hand in the air.

Stella looked at the young man who sat on the stool next to hers. He had a cute smile and he was definitely a hunter who was reporting to Araya. Stella could see the bump on his pants, but Stella could guess it wasn’t because he was happy to see her. “It’s on me” the young man shouted to get her to hear him.

Stella looked at him. “I don’t drink tequila” she shouted. The hunter grinned, made a hand gesture and suddenly her shot was switched to a vodka. Stella smiled, raised the glass in the air thanking him and bottoms upped. She looked at the man as she put the glass back on, banging but not breaking it. “You know who I am, don’t you?” she guessed, tilting her head. The smile on his face got bigger.

He leaned into her. “I am just hoping you come with me without any trouble” he said, putting his lips near her ear. Stella smiled, licked her lips.

“Even if that would entertain me…” she said, this time she was the one who leaned in and put her lips near his ear, talking with a husky seductive voice. “I have no reason to be a trouble.”

“It’s really brave of a Hale like you to come and see me” Araya claimed. She was sitting behind her desk and her deadly eyes were looking at Stella who was sitting across her on the chair. She flashed a fake smile, looked around at the hunters in the room. Everyone had a blade, or a gun or any kind of weapon. The guy who brought her here was standing in front of the door, watching them.

Stella turned to look at Araya. She put out her gun, causing them to open the safeties on and as she placed the knife on the table, she heard a shotgun’s sound. “I hope you know I’m not just a Hale, Araya” she murmured, smiling and took one of the silver bullets, put it right next to the gun, showing the fleur-de-lis mark on the bullets. She only had 5 of them left. One of them was used to…

Stella stopped her brain to go there, relive that night. She gulped down and focused on the huntress, not breaking.

Araya smiled, seeing that one moment of flinch. She looked away from the weapons and looked at the young hunter. “Oh” she smiled, shaking her head. “I know exactly who you are. Stella Diane Argent.” By the look on her face, Stella knew Araya was looking down on her. Mainly because of what she was and what she was supposed to be doing. “You are just like your mother.”

With that comparison, Stella wrinkled her face and raised her index finger to stop her. “Alright, hold on now” she responded. “I think that comparison is just wrong in so many levels.” She shrugged, continued. “First of all, I wasn’t bitten and believe me… I have so many reasons to kill myself other than the werewolf gene in my DNA. So many more valid reasons but I also know my friends need me.” Then she threw her head back, asking if she was serious. When she looked back at the woman, Stella parted her lips. “And besides… Do you really want to compare me with my mom? I didn’t kill your hunters to escape. I’m still here, sitting down. We’re talking like two civilized hunters, right?” And then pulled her shoulders up, kept looking at Araya. “And knowing why I’m here, don’t you think it’s better if we talk alone?”

Araya eyed her for a minute, didn’t say anything, didn’t do anything. But then she waved her head at Severo and the others, ordering them to leave them alone. She really had to talk to her alone as she knew why she crossed the border and came here.

“Last time we’ve seen Kate or heard from her, she was at the Church called La Iglesia” Araya said, she walked around the desk and stood in front of Stella. She leaned against the desk. “I sent Scott and his little pack after her.”

“Yeah, I know” Stella said, shrugging. “They found Derek as a scrappy teenager which I still have no idea how she was able to do that.” She grimaced and then shook the thought away and looked at Araya. “Don’t you have any new information you can tell me, Calavera?”

Woman shook her head no. “All we know that she is in Beacon Hills right now.” Stella sighed, got ready to get up but stopped and sat back on the chair as she heard Araya talking. “What I don’t understand is this. After all those grief and loss… Why are you determined to find your mother?”

“I have questions that need to be answered” Stella answered the huntress. She got up again and grabbed her gun and the bullets off the desk. She put them in her pocket again, looking at Araya. “And by the way Araya…” She shook her head. “You don’t know anything about what I’ve been through.”

“I know enough” Araya argued back strictly, firm. Her voice was sharp as a knife, but it didn’t affect Stella at all. “Remember the code, Stella. Us not coming for you till now doesn’t mean that we won’t cross the border and come knocking on your door later.”

“I have a code” Stella said, hitting the desk with her hands, keeping them there and leaning into them. She was as tough as Araya and maybe even more as she was looking at her with a scowl right in her eyes to show how determined she was. “We protect those who cannot protect themselves.” She tilted her head slightly, continued. “That’s the code I’m following. Not yours. Because, honestly, that one is full of twists and conflicts that causes more damage than the supernatural creatures that we are supposed to hunt.”

Araya laughed, annoyed. “Now I’m letting you go, Hale, but the next time when our roads cross…”

Stella angrily interrupted her, adding a little sarcasm in her voice as well. “ _Next time_ …” She emphasized. “I’ll make sure you get your own parade, Araya.” She turned around, made her way to the closed door. She grabbed the handle but before she opened the door and left her alone, she looked at Araya over her shoulder who was looking back at her with frustration. “Also, I’m not just a Hale despite what you think of me” she said confidently. “I’m an Argent and a freaking hunter, whether you like it or not.” She turned around and before she stepped outside, she spoke again. “And I’m a very good one.”

Stella parked her car in the garage with a deep breath out. She climbed out of the car. Araya gave her nothing to work with and she hated but she had to admit to herself it was getting really hard finding Kate. Considering, Kate was the one who thought Stella everything she knew about tracking… Stella was frustrated.

She looked at the time on her phone. It was almost 1 AM. She sighed and headed for the elevator and to the stairs that led her to Derek’s loft. She was tired, she was exhausted and as she was climbing up the stairs, she had lot of things in her mind.

But then she heard shallow breaths, Peter’s voice calling out for Derek and then that weird noise. “Don’t worry Peter” the distorted voice said. Stella frowned, walking faster. “Derek’s next.”

Stella climbed the stairs up faster and she stood right in front the open door. The first thing she noticed was Peter on the ground and an axe stabbed in his chest. And then she saw the man in black. He turned to her, and Stella saw another bizarre thing. Well… She didn’t see… Because he had no mouth, like spot on his face where he was supposed to have lips, there was nothing. A very smooth skin…

Stella quickly pulled out her gun and aimed at him, shooting as Peter got up and ignoring the axe in his chest, they attacked the tall muted man.

After a while, the guy was gone. Peter was on the floor again holding the mechanism that the muted man was using to communicate. He still had an axe on his chest. Meanwhile Stella was just looking at the door the guy just walked away. Her hair was a mess and she was definitely confused as hell.

“Okay, uh…” She tilted her head slightly. Rubbed her forehead with the hand she wasn’t holding her gun in. “What the hell just happened?” she shouted with confusion. She looked at Peter but his expression was saying this. _I really can’t bring myself to care what the hell just happened while there is a freaking axe inside my chest._

Oh well, Stella couldn’t really blame him.

“Hey, a little help here?” Peter asked, barely being able to speak. Stella raised her brows, crossed her arms in front of her chest as she tried to find a valid reason to help him. There were definitely none. “It burns. I don’t think an axe should burn like that.”

“Great” Stella responded with a smile. “And if I’m lucky enough, after a horrible and totally useless day, it has wolfsbane laced on it and it’ll kill you in seconds.” Peter rolled his eyes, looking at her. But then Stella walked up to him, kneeled right next to him. She grabbed the handle of the axe and strongly pulled it to her, taking it out of Peter’s chest causing him to grunt and squirm in pain. Her eyes on him, Stella stood up, put the axe on the table. “You’re gonna have to wait Derek for the rest of it. That’s the only help you’re gonna get from me. I’m tired and I smell like…” She grimaced. “… an old Mexican hunter.” She shook her head and as she meant to head upstairs, she saw the way Peter was looking at her. He had a scowl and definitely deathly glances. “What?” Stella shouted, surprised like what she was doing was too obvious. She shrugged. “I don’t have any reason to help you.”

As Stella went upstairs, Peter rolled his eyes and held onto the table trying to stand up.

“The axe was laced with wolfsbane” Derek said, walking towards Peter with a lighter in his hands. Derek arrived at the Loft for about 15 minutes after Stella and Peter had their little conversation. Stella heard Derek and went downstairs and now as Derek was talking to Peter, she was just standing there. She was still tired but at least she wasn’t smelling like an old Mexican hunter. “I don’t know the species, so I’m going to have to burn it out.”

Derek showed the lighter to Peter who scoffed sarcastically. “I think I can handle a little fire” he said looking at the lighter. Derek raised his brows as he was saying ‘is that so?’ and pulled up the bigger lighter thingy. It was a tool that the blacksmiths would use. He fired it up, looking at Peter with a smile. “Ah, hell” Peter cursed, looking at the fire and thinking about the pain he was gonna feel.

Stella stretched her lips back, faking her sadness. “Oh, how bad” she murmured but the sarcasm in her voice was telling how much she didn’t feel sad about Peter and the fact that he got attacked with an axe that had wolfsbane on it. And the smile that came next was also another evidence. She pulled her hands up in the air, looked at Peter. “No regrets whatsoever.” Then she looked at Derek, faking her excitement. “Can I burn his wound? It would be so much fun!”

Derek knew she wasn’t serious so as he got to it Peter screamed and grunted, he was smiling.

When the wound was all burned out, Peter threw himself to the ground with pain. Derek held out his hand to help him. Peter took the help and as he kept breathing heavily, he stood up. As he was trying to get to himself, Stella sighed. Her eyes found Derek. “He said he was after you” she said, not forgetting this tiny bit of detail.

Derek was confused as he remembered the way they described the man who attacked them. He knotted his eyebrows, looking at Stella. “How does a guy with no mouth say anything?” he asked.

Peter grabbed the black gloves with some kind of technology on them and showed it to Derek. “With this.”

“Are you still having troubles of controlling it?” Derek asked. His worried eyes were on Stella who had her eyes closed and taking deep and heavy breaths as she was trying to calm down. The full moon was in the sky, giving headaches and troubles of controls to the new werewolves like Stella. She grunted, growled. She could feel her fangs were pushing themselves out which was very painful. Her claws were pushing her nails and she was thinking how stupid Derek that he refused to chain her up. “Do you have a method? Something to help you control it? Haven’t that Max guy thought you anything?”

Stella managed to shake her head. In London, everyone had their own methods, their own ways. Stella tried to think of something. She tried to remember how Scott was controlling his shifting. There were few ideas, but Stella wasn’t sure if she was able to do it. “I remember…” She growled again. Her heart was pounding, her brain felt like it was about to explode. “I remember that you have to find yourself an anchor. That’s how… That’s how Scott controls it but I…” Stella was pushing every muscle of hers to just sit still on the couch as Derek was looking at her. Peter was upstairs, on the roof. So, there was just Stella and Derek and the only reason Derek didn’t tie her up was that he had faith in her. This was her third full moon. Derek believed that she could do it this time. “But I can’t” Stella cried; her eyes still closed. Her fingers were formed in a fist, forcing her claws to stay in. She shook her head, growling. “I don’t have Allison. I don’t have… I don’t have Aiden. I have no one.”

Hearing her, listening to her, Derek was reminded of someone. Himself…

“I’ve been through the same thing Stella. In fact, I had to kill the girl I loved” he said, kneeling down right in front of her between the couch and the coffee table. Stella opened her eyes, glowed her blue eyes at him but Derek wasn’t impressed nor affected. His hands were wrapping her thin wrists that had claws out now. Stella grunted, growled again. Derek continued. “Pick an emotion. That’s how Peter thought me. Pick a strong emotion and focus on that.”

Stella was breathing heavily, looked at Derek with glowing blue eyes. Right now, all she wanted to do was rip him apart limb by limb. But she was holding herself, she was trying to control the wolf. She had to. Her and Derek weren’t that kind of father-daughter duo, but he was family and Stella couldn’t afford to lose another family. Her grandfather was a psychopath; her grandmother, her aunt and her cousin were dead; her uncle was still in France mourning after the people they’ve lost; and her mother…

Well, her mother was a totally different thing and right now, all she had was Derek.

“You… You want me to trust something Peter taught?” She growled. Derek kept holding her wrists, keeping her still. Stella growled again, showing her fangs. “Just… Just lock me up. Just chain me up Derek. Please.”

Derek shook his head no. “Stella, focus!” he said keenly, squeezed her wrists. “You are angry, furious that Allison and Aiden died. Take that anger and use it to control the wolf.” Stella closed her eyes again, tried to focus and do what Derek told her to do. But then another advice crawled back to her mind. _If you want to control your powers, you have to embrace them_ , Talia Hale once said to her.

Stella took a deep breath. She embraced being an Argent no matter what few months ago thanks to a conversation she had with her uncle and her cousin. The silver bullets she was carrying was the proof of that. And Stella knew the real problem here. And that was the denial she was in. The denial towards the fact that she was a Hale and a werewolf.

But Talia’s advice didn’t calm her down. No, it wasn’t it. Thinking about her denials caused her to think of something else. A memory with the person she never stopped thinking about. It felt like it’s been a lifetime since that day, but it’s been only four months.

_**** Stella breathed in angrily, looking at the young man who was witnessing his first actual Stella Argent breakdown. And he knew the reason. But the last time he opened his mouth ended up with her having a stronger breakdown, so Aiden did nothing. He just stood there, watched her, and waited her to calm down. So that he could talk._

_But in the other hand, Stella’s anger looked like it was sticking around for a while. It’s been almost two weeks since Jennifer was defeated. It’s been almost three weeks since Stella’s problems with herself was getting stronger. Ever since Jennifer told her that she was a banshee._

_How could she be a supernatural creature when she was an Argent?_

_“Damn it!” she screamed again. Sometimes it was just too much for her and she needed to get it out of her chest. Even when it was 3 AM. But Ethan was with Danny and the house was empty, so it created opportunity for Stella to have her mental breakdown in peace. Well, mostly in peace anyway. “How can you expect me to be calm?” She looked at Aiden, her voice got lower and lower. Maybe because she was getting tired. “I don’t know even know if I’m a hunter or something that I hunt. I don’t know who or what I am, and I hate to say this when I am around her… When I’m around my best friend and the person I love the most… I just feel worse. And I hate this.” She shook her head. “I hate being like this.”_

_Aiden slowly walked to her, held her cheeks with his hands and forced her to look at his face and see how serious he was. “How about just be Stella who is a hunter and has the power of a banshee?” he asked softly, causing Stella to kiss him as an answer. ****_

As she vividly remembered the memory, Stella felt her fangs and claws going back. Derek felt her body loosening up and let go off her wrists but kept looking at her with a worried expression. He watched her open her eyes but this time, they weren’t glowing blue. They were back to being brown.

Derek smiled, stood up knowing she was in control now. “I knew you could do it” he said as he grabbed the black glove. Before he turned around and made his way to the door, he smiled and looked at Stella. “Are you controlled and okay enough for me to go and not come back to a broken _Italian_ coffee table?” He showed her the glove he was holding. “I have to take this to the Sheriff.”

Stella smiled, nodded, and then parted her lips. “Thank you” she murmured. Derek paused with his hand on the door handle. Turned around and looked at her again. “For, uh, for trusting me and not chaining me up. I still think you’re insanely and suicidally stupid, but…” Derek scoffed as Stella wiped away the sweat on her forehead. “You helped me. That means a lot.”

“Don’t worry about it” he said with a soft smile. He meant to leave her alone but then he paused. He had to ask something. As he turned to her and parted his lips, he was curious. “What made you calm down? What was your anchor?”

Stella sighed, hearing that question. She looked down at her hands who were covered with her own blood since her fingers were in a fist when her claws came out. “Aiden” she whispered. Dead or alive… It wouldn’t matter. Her eyes found Derek. “I remembered something Aiden once told me. That made me calm down.”

Derek didn’t ask what it was. He had an acrid smile on his face as he left Stella alone in the loft with so many thoughts on her head.

After Derek left and Stella cleaned her hands from all the blood, she opened her computer to look at the code she transferred to the virtual platform. She tried to think how to crack that code. So far, all she knew it needed a cipher key and she didn’t know the cipher key but considering their drawings with Lydia led them to Nemeton, she had to figure this before it bit them in the ass. She felt like she really needed a win after everything that happened and to figure out a way to save people before she found their bodies.

Stella placed her elbows near the computer and connected her hands. She put her chin on the top of them and looked at the site with the code and the empty blank that she was supposed to put the cipher key into. And as she looked at her computer screen, she knew it was time that her friends knew she was there. Even if she could find the key, she needed her friends help to deal with whatever the hell that was.

Besides, she needed Scott and the pack’s help to find her mother.

She took a deep breath, looked at the little empty box she was supposed to type the key into. She took her hands on the keyboard, taking a deep breath. As her empty eyes were on the computer’s bright screen, she didn’t realize her fingers were moving on the keyboard.

And when she realized, she saw the thing she typed. The cipher key… The name… _Allison..._

With a deep breath, she pressed the enter and all of a sudden, the weird writings, the letters and the code turned into names.

Lydia Martin 20

Stella Hale 25

Scott McCall 25

Demarco Montana 250

Derek Hale 15

Carrie Hudson 500

Kayleen Bettcher 250

Kira Yukimura 6

Elias Town 250

Sean Wallcot 250

David Wallcot 250

Michael Wallcot 250

Christina Wallcot 250

Stella gasped as she understood what that list was. Her eyes moved on the screen, looking at the names. “Oh, my God” she whispered. She knew why Peter was robbed. She knew why the money was stolen and what it was being used for. “It’s a dead pool.”


	4. I.E.D

“So, the Walcott’s were the first. At least the first that we know about.” Stiles breathed in and continued speaking as he looked at his father. “Four murders: Sean, his brother, and their parents. They were killed by a professional assassin called The Mute. Weapon of choice, a military tomahawk. Bu then The Mute was killed by Peter Hale after he tried to blow up Derek with a Claymore mine.” Stiles paused again to catch a breath. Continued. “Next was Demarco. He delivered a keg to the party at Lydia’s lake house. And got decapitated outside his car.”

_**** “Does the scent tell you anything?” Chris asked, kneeling right next to the headless body as he was also looking at the headless werewolf._

_“Definitely a werewolf” Scott said, just like Argent, he was also kneeled down, right next to the corpse, looking at it, trying to find something out of it. “But there’s more. I think he was part of a pack.”_

_Chris looked at Scott. “Well, if he was, they’ll be looking for him.” ****_

“And then last night, 23-year-old Carrie Hudson” Stiles continued.

“It’s a dead pool” Scott said, looking at the Sheriff who was standing behind his desk, listening to the boys who decided to drop by the station before school to fill him in with the things they knew about so far. “A hit list of supernatural creatures.” He took out the list that they printed out and showed it to the Sheriff. “This is only a part of it. The rest still has to be decoded.”

Sheriff searched through the names on the list really quick. “Who found this list?” he asked, his eyes still moving on the paper.

“Lydia” his son answered.

Sheriff knotted his eyebrows, looked at Stiles in confusion. “How?”

“She wrote it” Stiles said, playing with his fingers as he was looking at his father. “Actually, she transcribed it. Without realizing it.”

“Banshee?” Sheriff asked.

Stiles nodded. “Banshee.”

“Beautiful” Sheriff murmured and looked back at the list. “Alright, what are these numbers next to the names?”

Stiles pointed the list as he parted his lips to explain. “We’re getting to that” he said and continued. “First, you need to know that the code was broken with a cipher key.”

“Wait, you mean, like a…” He straightened up, raised his eyebrows. “Like a key word?”

“It’s actually a name.”

“Allison.” Sheriff paused as he heard the name from Scott’s lips with such a broken tone. He knew last semester was hard on all of them, losing their friends and almost being having to kill their best friends. They had to watch their friends die in front of them and then they had to watch their friends leave because of that.

Scott gulped down; Sheriff was still looking at the young alpha. And Stiles had to focus on the list they had because he blamed himself for everything. For everything he has done. For Allison’s death, for Aiden’s death, for Stella leaving them… It was his fault in his book and he just had to distract his mind away from that.

He quickly parted his lips. “Her name broke a third of the list” he said.

Scott straightened up, looked at the sheriff and continued Stiles’ sentences. “And now we think there’s two other cipher keys” he added.

“Which will give us the rest of the names” Sheriff nodded, understanding. He slightly waved his hand and looked at the list. Again. “Okay, so how do we get the cipher keys?”

“Same way we got the code” Stiles responded, taking a deep breath. “Lydia.”

“Yeah, she’s been out at the lake house all weekend trying to find the other two key words” the alpha agreed with Stiles. Meanwhile Sheriff was looking through the pictures from Demarco and Carrie’s case.

He stopped, frowned, and looked at Scott. “You didn’t know about Demarco or Carrie?” he questioned. Scott and Stiles shook their heads no. Sheriff looked down at the list, pointing two names. “Hmm. And what about these other two names on the list? Uh, Kayleen Bettcher and Elias Town.” He looked at Scott. “They are werewolves, too?”

“I don’t know” Scott answered. “But Deaton said that the Nemeton would draw supernatural creatures here.”

“Here being Beacon Hills, or Beacon County?” Sheriff asked, frowning. Not that he only had his son to worry about but also the town he was supposed to protect. “The population of Beacon Hills is just under 30,000.”

“And dropping…”

Sheriff flashed his son an ‘are you kidding me?’ look and then looked back at Scott, parted his lips to continue. “But if we’re talking Beacon County, then you’re looking at close to 500,000” he said, spreading his arms to both sides. He shook his head slightly and then sat back on his chair, looked up at his son and his son’s best friend. “How many werewolves, banshees, kitsunes and whatever the hell else is out there are we talking about?” He paused for a second and then continued. “And what if the next cipher key uncovers not 13 names but 100?”

“We don’t think there would be that many” Stiles said, raising his eyebrows slightly and looking at his father. “There’s a limit.”

Scott put his finger on the list, pointing it. “Because of the numbers” he explained. “We think that once we decode the names, the numbers will add up to 150.”

“150 what?” the Sheriff asked.

“Million” Scott answered. The sheriff frowned, meanwhile Stiles grabbed the list and turned it towards him. He put the letter M for million next to Lydia, Stella, Scott, Derek, and Kira’s name. And then he put the letter K next to the others’ names on the list. Sheriff was watching his son from the chair he was sitting on.

When he stood up, Stiles was done and putting the cover back to the pen he was holding. “150 million dollars, dad” the young man said. “Stolen from the Hale vault and is being used by someone to finance all these murders.”

“Someone who wants every supernatural in Beacon Hills dead.”

Sheriff frowned and looked down at the list one more time as something was bothering him. As he started to speak, he looked up again at Stiles and Scott. “But Stella is not in Beacon Hills right now, is she?” he asked.

“No, she is still in London” Scott answered.

“As far as we know” Stiles added and then continued. “But she’s lived here for a very long time.”

“Yeah, and whoever made that list probably doesn’t know she is gone, or the list was made before she was gone. We’re not completely sure” Scott said, tilted his head down. He slowly breathed out and then looked back at the Sheriff. “But since she’s not here, we, uh… We thought not to tell her about the dead pool.”

Sheriff knotted his eyebrows. “So, the coded list goes out” he repeated to make sure he understood. “And somehow these professional assassins get that list...”

Stiles interrupted to add to him. “And a cipher key.”

Sheriff nodded yes and then continued. “And then they go after the names on the list.” He was waving his hands in the air, looking at the list. “They being killers with no mouths, tomahawks, thermo-cut wires that can take your head off.”

Stiles confirmed his dad and softly tapped at Carrie’s picture on the table. “Carrie was also stabbed.”

“What’s this mark?” Scott asked as he noticed the circles, marks around Carrie’s knife wounds on the young girl’s chest.

“We’re not sure yet. We’re still waiting on the ME’s report” Sheriff said, looking at the pictures. But then with a deep breath, he looked up at Stiles and Scott. “But Scott, that’s not my point. Stella is on the list too and she is worth the same as you are. You are both 25 Million dollars worthy people here, making you the top 2 on the list. And if these hit lists are being sent to professional assassins, it can also be sent to professional assassins in London.” Scott and Stiles were looking at each other as they heard the Sheriff. “You have to tell her.”

Stiles started tapping his hands to each other nervously. “He’s actually right, dude” he said, tilting his head and pointing his father. Scott knew that. As he nodded, agreeing, Sheriff parted his lips to speak again.

“There’s also one other thing I don’t get” Sheriff said, looking away from the crime scene photos, looking at Scott and Stiles. It was something that was bothering him for a while but just thought about asking. “How did this new assassin know that Demarco was going to be at the lake house?”

“Everyone knows he delivers kegs to teenagers for a little extra cash” Scott responded, looking at the Sheriff who obviously didn’t know what Scott just said. He shook his head, let out an ‘oh’ sound from his lips and looked down at the list.

“So, whoever ordered that keg…” he said softly. “… killed Demarco.”

“Yeah, it was someone at the party” Stiles confirmed.

Scott sighed. “A student.”

“Where are you going?”

Stella stopped on her spot as she heard Peter from behind. She rolled her eyes, turned around and looked at the annoying werewolf. “What do you think?” she asked back as she showed the bag that was hanging on her back. “The principle gave me only two months. I’ve passed that two months.” She was talking like Peter was a toddler and she was trying to explain something to that toddler. “I’m 17. So, I have to go back to school. It’s simple logic, really.”

“I thought no one was supposed to know you were back in town?” Peter questioned, it came out more of a question. He knotted his brows, looking at Stella who was standing in front of the door.

She pulled her shoulders up, faked a smile. “And now, they have to know” she said and turned around. Peter rolled his eyes at the young girl. She slid open the door, walked outside and closed the door so rough and strong that the door closed with a loud bang. As Stella made her way to the garage, she could hear Peter grumbling about the door.

“I’m sorry, I’m late” Stella apologized, walking inside the History class, and feeling like everyone was looking at her. Especially Mr. Yukimura, Stiles, Scott... No one knew she was back until now and as she was walking to her seat next to Stiles, everyone was pretty surprised to see her. “I’m really sorry.”

“It’s okay, Stella” Mr. Yukimura answered with a sincere smile on his face even though it was obvious that he was also surprised to see her here after everything. Stella smiled back embarrassingly and nervously as she sat on her seat, taking a breath. “It’s so good to have you back here.”

Stella smiled at Mr. Yukimura one more time as Stiles turned to look at her. “Stella…” he said, not being able to believe his eyes that she was there. He was keeping his volume down because Mr. Yukimura already started the lecture, but Stiles was too distracted to listen to what happened hundreds of years ago. “What? When-When did you come back?”

Stella took her History book out from her bag and looked at her friend. “I’ve been here for almost a week, but we have more important problems than my arrival at Beacon Hills” she answered underneath her breath. And then she looked ahead, at the board and softly murmured. “I know about the dead pool. We need to talk.”

Stiles nodded, agreeing with Stella, and looked at the board. He couldn’t believe she was here for over a week, and they didn’t know about it. But Stiles didn’t think on it that much since Stella was right as always.

They had bigger and more important problems.

Stella raised her eyebrows in shock as she looked at the young boy standing right next to her. She learned that his name was Liam and he was bitten by Scott a while back and now he was a werewolf like him. Actually, Stella already knew some of it from Derek who told her about the whole were-wendigo thing at the hospital. He told her that he was suspicious, but they had no evidence.

And when he did, they talked about it again and that was one of the reasons why Stella decided to show her face in school.

She looked at Scott in disbelief. “I’ve been gone for just two months and you gave supernatural strength to a time bomb who is ready to explode any second?” she asked, keeping her voice down but also yelling at the same time. Liam had serious anger control issues and he was kicked out from his previous school because of it and Stella just had to close her eyes and take a deep breath as she proceeded this information. “Scott…” Stella opened her eyes and looked at Scott who was looking at her with a puppy face look. “This could be the stupidest thing you’ve ever done.”

“I’m sorry, who are you?” Liam asked, causing her to look at him back frustrated. He couldn’t remember if she was at Lydia’s lake house party and he was definitely not enjoying her attitude as he was getting pretty frustrated himself. “And what are you? You weren’t at the party of lunatics.”

Stella frowned. She looked at the freshman, asking what the hell he was talking about with the expression on her face but then Stiles decided to say something because… Well, Stella also looked like a time bomb who was about to explode. “This is Stella” he introduced her, showing her with his hand. “She is a banshee, werewolf and, uh…” He pressed her lips together, curled his fingers into a fist and hit his other fist, not knowing what to say or how to say it.

“And a hunter” Stella completed his sentence for him and then faked a smile, looking at Liam. In order to talk more comfortably and roast him more comfortably, she had to be alone with Scott. “Why don’t you just go and get ready for your Lacrosse game, Liam?”

Liam looked at Scott who waved his head go. After Lydia’s Lake house, he was the only one who he trusted and the only one who he listened to. So as Liam left them alone, Stella turned to Scott furiously. “This is gotten way out of our hands Scott!” she basically shouted but still kept her volume down. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? With Calaveras still on our asses, yours, and mine? Are you insane? Why did you do this?”

“I did this to save his life” Scott answered calmly as he knew why she was acting like this. “I had no other choice.”

“Great” Stella whispered heatedly. “Couldn’t you just save someone calmer, I don’t know, more silent? What are you planning to do on that Lacrosse field today? Do you know who you guys are playing against?”

Scott and Stiles frowned, looking at Stella. “No” Scott said. “Wait, do you?”

“I can’t-” Stella took a deep breath and looked at the two boys. “It’s Liam’s previous school, Scott. Previous school means previous friends. And previous friends are never a good sign for someone like Liam.”

Scott was looking at Stella, totally speechless.

“Wait, how do you know that?” Stiles asked, knotting his eyebrows, and looking at Stella.

Young Argent shrugged. “Derek told me about Liam the other day and I did a little research. Internet works wonders, Stilinski” she said a lot calmer but still a little bit frustrated. Because she was worried about the whole dead pool thing on their asses and a 15-year-old as a target on there was something neither of them needed. 

“Derek is going to drop by the school and take a look today” Scott said, sighing.

Stella pressed her lips together, her tongue moved on her lips angrily. “This won’t help a thing, Scott.” Her hands went through her hair and took a deep breath. When she looked back at Scott, she was a lot calmer. She sighed. “Liam is just 15 years old and we have a dead pool on our hands and two more lists to decode and his name can be on there. We don’t know how it’s updated or written.” She shrugged. “What do you expect us to do about it? He is just a child. He is not ready. Hell, sometimes we’re not ready.”

“We’ll figure something out” Scott said, putting his hand on her shoulder and squeezing to comfort her. His voice was soft, trying to calm her down. Because he understood her. He felt the same way about Liam as well. “We always did.” Stella took a deep breath, kept looking at the young alpha. “Everything’s going to be okay.”

“It better” Stella responded, sighing. She shook her head and before she turned around and headed to her locker, she spoke again. “I didn’t come back here to lose again. I need a freaking win this time.” She paused for a second. “I just need a win.”

“What the hell?” Liam murmured as he realized his lacrosse stick wasn’t there. Getting inside the locker rooms to put his red Nike bag to his locker, only to realize his important lacrosse material weren’t there caused him to get angry, he started breathing heavily. And then he heard a noise. It was like someone was walking and brushing a stick to the metal.

Liam walked down the aisle, heading to the shower part of the locker room. And then he saw a guy. Holding his lacrosse stick…

“Is this yours?” he asked, looking at the stick and then at Liam. And before even Liam could answer, Derek split the stick in half, clattering and threw the pieces in front of Liam which caused Liam’s heart race to go up and get the new-turned werewolf pretty angry. His eyes glowed amber, Derek looked at him daring him to run to him.

And Liam did.

And Derek grabbed him by the throat, lifted him up and pushing him to the wall. Liam was showing his fangs, growling, trying to get away from Derek and possibly attack him again.

“Liam.” Scott’s voice echoed through Liam’s ears, turning his eyes back to their natural color but he was still pissed and breathing heavily. Scott walked through the lockers, making his way to them slowly.

Derek looked at Scott with a softy and teasing smile. “You’re right” Derek said with the same attitude as his smile. “He is angry.” He pulled his hair back, dropping Liam to the floor. He kept breathing angrily but looked at Scott to see he was also holding a lacrosse stick.

“This one’s yours” Scott said, showing the stick to him. And as he threw it to Liam, he caught it in the air and held it tight. Liam’s angry green eyes found Derek again but distracted with the school bell ringing. “Get to class, Liam.” Liam’s eyes moved between Scott and Derek for a while, thinking if he should listen to the alpha or attack the other one again but then decided to listen to Scott and left them alone, causing Scott to sigh in exhaustion. Then he looked up and saw Derek with a huge and sincere smile. “What are you smiling about?” he wondered, looking at him. 

“You’re gonna be good at this” Derek replied, still smiling.

Hearing that, the curiousness went away from Scott’s expression and left its place to disbelief because Scott was thinking otherwise. “Are you kidding?” he shouted, terrified as he was thinking about what Stella said and what he felt. “I am totally unprepared. Remember how you said you could teach me a few things? I think, right now, I could use a full-on training manual.”

Scott sat on the bench when Derek was listening to him with a grin and then parted his lips to speak. “Scott, I don’t know if you know this, but I am in the same position as you right now.” His arms were crossed in front of his chest like always but this time, he didn’t have a scowl on. He was smiling softly as he was looking at the young Alpha. “I found out that I have a daughter. And that’s not just someone who I didn’t know about but someone who I spent a lot of time with ever since she came to Beacon Hills.”

Scott smiled, nodded, and softly shrugged. “There’s not going to be a problem with Stella” he said confidently. “I think you guys are doing pretty great so far.”

“We still have a lot to talk about, but yeah. We are doing great.” Derek smiled again and sat right next to Scott on the bench. “And I’ll tell you one thing” he continued. “That anger he’s got? It’ll make him stronger.”

“And dangerous” Scott added. Derek mouthed ‘very’ as he nodded and agreed with him and then stopped smiling and put on a much-worried voice. He looked down at his connected hands and continued. “This was supposed to be the semester I could focus on school again. But Kate’s back. And I’ve got a Beta. And there’s a dead pool.”

As Scott sighed feeling all the burden on his shoulders, Derek parted his lips. “If all our names are on that list…” he said, looking at Scott. “Then that's what we should be focused on. I know Stella’s been working on it and she’s been obsessed with it now. I’m actually glad she is back to school. But since she is a werewolf now, I don’t know how much we can trust her banshee powers.”

Scott knotted his brows. “Did she say anything about it?” he asked curiously.

“She said the banshee-ness and the werewolf-ness are conflicting and it’s a miracle that she found the dead pool. I know she talked to Deaton about it” Derek answered as he remembered the things Stella told her last night. “She said she’s going to visit Deaton when she can.” As Scott nodded, Derek took a deep breath and continued. “But do you think Lydia can get that second key?”

Scott nodded again, looking at Derek. “She’s working on it.”

“You know, I’m so furious at you Argent.” As she heard Lydia’s very raged voice, Stella closed her locker and looked at Lydia to face her. Her face was as angry as her voice and Stella knew she deserved it. “You left without saying anything. Anything! A goodbye, an adios… Nothing. Stiles told us that you were gone.”

Stella slightly pulled her shoulder up, tilted her head and put on a total puppy face expression as Lydia talked to her angrily. “I’m sorry” Stella said sincerely. Lydia crossed her arms in front of her chest, looking at her when she took a deep breath. “After everything… I just wasn’t strong here and I definitely wasn’t strong enough to say goodbye.” She shook her head, looked down at her hands nervously. “Even saying goodbye to Stiles, seeing him… It was hard but I felt like I owe that to you. To all of you. And I meant to say goodbye. I really did. I wanted to come and see you all but then…” Lydia seemed soften up as she understood what she went through just few months ago. Lydia was still having troubles walking in this school and just act like everything was okay. As she sighed and nodded, she saw Stella smile softly to clear up the dramatic atmosphere around them. “I bought you clothes from London boutiques.”

Lydia smiled, not holding it back and pulled her into a hug. “You’re forgiven” she said as Stella hugged her back with a relieved smile and a sigh. They hugged for a moment and then Lydia pulled away and held her an arm away. She took a deep breath and her green eyes found her brown ones. “And I need your help.”

Stella pressed her lips together, looking at Lydia. “Dead pool?” she asked.

“Dead pool” Lydia confirmed. She breathed out and moved her shoulders up and down. “I was at the art class with Malia trying to find something, trigger the banshee abilities or whatever but nothing happened.” She sighed as it was obvious that she was frustrated.

Stella softly smiled at the thought of Malia. It was no secret to her that she was now going to Beacon Hills High and was a part of the pack. Stella haven’t seen her yet, but it was nice to hear that Malia wasn’t alone.

“Yeah, I know. I’ve got a jack with side of squat as well” she responded, rolling her eyes in frustration as well.

Lydia slightly tilted her head, pressing her lips together before she mentioned what she had in mind after a useless session in the art room. “And I’ve been thinking that maybe, uh… maybe we have to get help from someone else.”

Stella sighed, knowing who she was talking about. “Meredith.”

“Economic disparity exists in all forms.” As Coach’s voice reached to Stella, she didn’t lift her head up to look at him. She wasn’t sitting on her usual spot today; she was sitting in the back looking down at the paper in front of her. She was just trying to find something that could break the second list. But all she was doing was stare at the paper and her pen. After talking with Lydia and agreeing that they need Meredith’s help, she still felt like she had to do something. And she was trying to push herself but still there was nothing. Except for some random numbers she’s been sketching. “Well, take sports, for example. Some teams have better training facilities. Some have better equipment. Unlike Beacon Hills that can barely afford the duct tape to keep our equipment together.” Coach hit the lacrosse stick to a table, getting everyone’s attention, even Stella’s. She took a deep breath, saw that Coach was looking at Stiles and not her and frowned. She had no idea what Stiles was looking at, but it was pretty obvious that Coach was disturbed by it. It was all written on his face. “Stilinski” Coach softly said. Stella went back to staring at her paper, Coach was looking down at the pictures Stiles was staring and then continued, looking at his face. “If I could grade you on how profoundly you disturb me, you’d be an A plus student.”

“Thanks, Coach” Stiles reacted with a straight face as he understood him because he was looking at Carrie Hudson’s crime scene pictures. Because he was trying to understand what killed her and Coach had every right be disturbed since he caught him looking at those in Economics class.

“Put those pictures away” Coach ordered before straightening up. Stiles nodded but then as he noticed something, he stopped. He quickly grabbed Coach’s lacrosse stick and compared it to the marks around Carrie’s wound. “Stilinski! What the hell is wrong with you?” Coach pulled the stick to himself, looking at Stiles as he was saying that he was crazy. “Don’t answer that.”

As Coach walked away from Stiles to his desk and continued on the lecture, Stella sensed that Stiles turned to her. She focused on the hearing, touched her ear softly to show him she was listening.

Seeing that, Stiles sighed. He turned his head slightly towards Scott. “It’s a lacrosse player” he murmured. Stella’s eyes opened widely with this information. He let out a soft breath between his lips and as Stiles continued, Scott turned to look at him as well. “The killer is on the team.”

“This… This is pointless” Scott shouted as he was frustrated. They’ve been in the locker room for a while now and they were searching with the hopes of finding the weapon but there was nothing and they couldn’t find anything. The others stopped what they were doing as well and looked at Scott. “Most of the team plays with their own gear.”

“Maybe instead of trying to find a lacrosse stick with a hidden dagger in it, we should be trying to get the game canceled” Stella suggested, raising her eyebrows, and crossing her arms in front of her chest. “It would be a lot easier. And besides, Liam still has to control his anger, so cancelling the game is a win-win situation.”

Scott looked at Stella. He knew she was right, but he had another idea. “The game’s the best way to catch him red-handed” Scott said, disagreeing with Stella’s idea.

Stiles parted his lips, agreeing with Stella’s idea. “But what if he’s red handed because his hands are covered in the blood of the person that he just stabbed to death?” he asked, looking at Scott. Stella pointed him, gesturing him that he is right. And while Stiles continued talking, he pointed Kira and Scott. “Which, by the way, could be either of you guys. And he decides to jump to the crowd, then Stella is in danger.”

“Or Liam” Stella added, looking at Scott. This was the reason she was going to watch the Lacrosse game if nothing came up and, somehow, she knew, lacrosse was always life or death with Scott and his pack. “We don’t have the whole list…” Stella placed her hands on the table, leaning into it. “… and he could be on it.”

“We don’t know anything about that list” Stiles continued heatedly as he was waving his hands in the air. “How it’s made, how it’s updated… I mean, who’s been out taking a supernatural census anyway?”

“How do they know about me?” Kira asked curiously. Kira’s eyes moved around the room, looking at her friends.

Stella sarcastically scoffed and parted her lips. “That’s aside, how can they know I’m here?” she asked, raising her volume a little bit up. “I didn’t even know I was gonna be here.”

Scott looked at them. “They know about everyone” he responded.

Stiles sighed. “I think Stella’s right” he said. He knew she was right, but he definitely hated to say that out loud, but Stella seemed to be enjoying this situation. She smiled and winked at him annoyingly, but Stiles ignored that, continued. “I think we should stop the game.”

“I’m not afraid” Scott said, straightening up and looking at Stiles.

“Neither am I” Kira joined Scott, looking at him.

“Yeah, when I said let’s stop the game, I wasn’t implying that I was afraid anyway” Stella said, rolling her eyes at the two of them. She crossed her arms in front of her chest and shook her head in disbelief.

“Well, I’m terrified. And I’m not even on the list!” Stiles shouted heatedly once again. His eyes were wide open, looking at his friends. “Guys, these are professional killers. It’s their profession.” He stopped to catch a breath and then continued. “One of them has got a thermo-cut wire that cuts heads off. Who knows what else they have?”

As Stella sighed looking at Stiles, Scott and Kira were looking each other worriedly.

“Eichen House says Meredith can’t have visitors without permission from a family member” Lydia said as she was walking down the stairs with Malia and Stella. After splitting from others since there was nothing to do and they had classes, she met with Lydia who said she talked with Eichen House, to talk about what they were going to do.

“That’s not gonna be easy since her whole family is dead” Malia commented, looking at the young girl.

Stella sighed. “Perfect” she murmured.

Malia took a breath in, stopped in the middle of the hallway, and looked at Lydia and Stella. “Okay, maybe we go back to the art room?” She waved her hand in the air and continued. “Or music room?”

Hearing that, Lydia looked at Malia in a way that Stella knew all of this was just frustrating the hell out of her. “I’m not plucking piano strings for two hours waiting for some supernatural inspiration” she said, not in a very soft or calm way.

“Fine” Malia responded, not understanding or caring why Lydia was this tense. She was still learning how to be a proper human after all those years in the woods stuck inside a coyote. “What else do banshees do?”

“You think we know?” Stella asked, scrunching her nose, and looking at Malia who was standing right next to her. Stella’s arms were crossed in front of her chest, as she was standing in the middle of the hallway, discussing about banshees with two girls. Meanwhile, Malia was looking at them with her hands pulled aside, waiting for them to say something or do something.

“This is not something we can’t just turn on” Lydia said. Frustrated, sad, angry… “I’m not like you guys. I don’t have claws, or glowing eyes or super senses.” With every word, she was taking another step towards Malia and Stella. “I just have voices in my head.” Malia looked around nervously to see if someone heard but then she looked at Lydia again, Stella sighed thinking about and worrying about Lydia.

But then she just turned around and walked away from them causing Malia to sigh and look up at the ceiling. Stella watched Lydia go, not knowing what to do. “Lydia! Hey, Lydi-” When she didn’t hear or simply decided to ignore, she threw head back and turned to Malia. She looked at him. “It’s not your faul-” Malia also ignored her and walked away, leaving Stella speechless. She slowly hit her legs in disbelief, raised her eyebrows up and stare at the hallway they both walked away from. “This is what I came back to, ha?” she softly whispered to herself and then started walking, not knowing what to do.

So, she walked outside and when she saw Liam walking towards a teenage boy with muscles who was getting out of their school bus, she knew it wasn’t going to end pretty. Stella looked around, her eyes caught Stiles and she walked towards them.

“Do you know who that is?” Scott asked, looking at her and then back to Liam who was still walking towards the bus, ignoring his best friend yelling after him.

Stella looked around once again, focused on the hearing. “I guess that’s Brent” she said, her eyes on Liam. She was on high alert like Stiles, waiting for something to happen. “Some girls were quacking about that. I really can’t see why.”

And then Liam stood right in front of Brent. “I just wanted to say…” He sounded angry. Stella could feel that all the way from London. Stiles, Scott, and Stella moved on their spots, trying to get ready if things go messy but then something happened. Somehow Liam calmed himself down. “Have a good game.” He thrusted out his hand, being supportive and calm.

And then Brett started laughing.

“Yeah, that’s not going to be good” Stella murmured, scrunching her face. She sucked air between her teeth while Stiles and Scott nodded their heads, agreeing with Stella.

“That’s cute, Liam” Brett said with a pitiful voice. He wasn’t laughing anymore but he was grinning now. “Is that what they told you to say in Anger Management? Apologize and everything’s fine?” As the pity in Brett’s voice got deeper, Liam got angrier. Stella walked towards the crowd, getting in the front line with Stiles and Scott behind her. “You demolished Coach’s car.”

“I paid for it” Liam said with a lower voice, angry. 

“Yeah, you’re going to pay for it” Brett said back. “We’re gonna break you in half out there. And it’s gonna be all your fault.”

Stella’s eyes slid to Liam’s fists, and the blood coming out from them. She quickly straightened up, hitting Scott and Stiles to make a move. “Oh, shit, guys.” She kept hitting them until they saw what she saw. “Guys, go!” she shouted with a low voice. The trio quickly walked up to Liam. And while Stiles and Scott grabbed Liam by the arm, taking him far away to the locker room, Stella smiled and looked at Brett. “Oh, hi there, snobby prep students” Stella started, trying to control her anger. She noticed the way some of them were eying her and she was getting angry as she could guess what they were thinking and how much they are objectifying her. Now, if she got angry, she could be worse than Liam. She still had control problems, but she was doing great so far. There was no problem, her heart beats were normal. “Welcome to Beacon Hills High and I hope you won’t be too sad when we kick your little prep student asses on the field today.”

Brett laughed mockingly looking at the young girl who was challenging him. “Who do you think you are?” he asked, causing Stella to get angry but not too angry that she would lose control.

Stella smiled furiously, biting her upper lip. Her brown eyes found Brett’s green ones. “The real question is, who do you think you are?” she asked back. “You can make sure your ass that once you’re done with empty threats, I’m going to show you who I really am.” She pressed her lips together, walked up to Brett and reached up to his hear, lowered her voice. “You can try as long as you’d like to hide who…” She smiled. “… what you are, Brett. But it won’t work. I know the real you.” Then she stepped back, looked at the prep boys and winked before she went to the locker room to check on Liam. “Good luck, boys.”

When Stella walked inside the locker room, Liam still had his amber eyes glowing, his fangs were out and he was roaring trying to escape from Scott and Stiles’ grip who were holding him under the cold shower, keeping him there. They were trying to cool him down. “Okay, he calm yet?” Stella asked, crossed her arms in front of her chest and leaned against one of the lockers that were facing the shower. Liam roared as an answer. Scott and Stiles stared at each other once again and pushed the young kid a lot harder to the wall.

“Okay! Okay!” Liam shouted after a while. Scott and Stiles released Liam free, Stiles turned off the shower and shook his hands, dropping water drops onto the floor. Every single one of them, except for Stella, were wet thanks to Liam.

Liam slid down on the wall, sat on the ground panting. “That car you smashed,” Scott said softly and curiously, looking at Liam. “I thought you said that was your teacher’s.”

“He was also my Coach” Liam responded, rested his head back a little bit to see them clearly.

“Okay, hold on a second” Stella reacted, pushed her body from the locker she was leaning against and walked towards Liam. She stood right in the middle of Stiles and Scott and looked down at Liam. “You smashed your Coach’s car?” She knotted her eyebrows, tilted her head to the lift. “Why the hell did you do that for?”

Liam looked at the young girl. “He benched me for the entire season” he answered, causing Stella to move her eyebrows up and down and shared a concerned look that also said we’re definitely screwed.

Meanwhile Scott frowned and looked at Liam, kneeling down in front of him. “What did you do?” he asked.

“I got a couple of red cards” Liam answered, looking down at the tile on the ground. Stella knotted her eyebrows, tightened his lips and Stiles looked at Liam with a teasing attitude.

“Just a couple?” he asked in disbelief. Liam didn’t answer.

“Liam, you gotta be honest with us” Scott said understandingly and calmly, looking at his Beta. He’s been through the same thing and if he were to help Liam, he had to know everything about him. “What else happened?”

“Nothing” Liam answered. Scott sighed, looking at Stella and Stiles and that’s when Liam continued. “I got kicked out of school. They sent me to a psychologist for evaluation.”

Hearing that, Stella walked up to Scott and kneeled right next to him. Her brown and concerned eyes were on Liam as she connected her hands in front of her and raised her eyes slightly, maintaining her balance perfectly as she was crouched down. “What did they call it?” she asked. She searched Liam’s name but all she ever found out was that he had serious anger issues and what he did to his teacher’s car.

And the rest was just brand-new information.

“Intermittent Explosive Disorder” said Liam causing Stella to tightened her lips, raise her eyebrows a little and then gulped down. _Oh, boy_ , she thought. This was beyond serious anger issues.

“I.E.D?” Stiles asked in disbelief. “You’re literally an I.E.D?” Stiles laughed sarcastically and also thinking they were screwed even more now. “That’s great.” Scott turned to look at Stiles to gesture him to shut it, but Stiles pointed him and continued. “That’s great. You gave powers to a walking time bomb.” Stiles winked, gave him a thumbs-up and as if this wasn’t enough, Stella parted her lips.

“Do you remember what I told you this morning, Scott?” she asked, looking at Scott. He knotted his brows, waiting for Stella to continue. “This is actually _the_ stupidest thing you’ve ever done. Like, by far.” She sighed. “Very goddamn far.” Scott held himself from rolling his eyes. Stella nodded softly and looked at Liam again, continued. She knew Scott had to do this in order to save his life, not that she would approve it, but she got it. And since they couldn’t go back in time, all she could do was help this kid and she was going to do. That didn’t mean that she wasn’t going to mock him. Hell, she was definitely going to mock him. She was going to tease him and make him go through hell to get him to control the wolf but if someone would ever try to do the same, like dirtbags as Brett, Stella was going to kick them in the ass and protect Liam. He was their responsibility now. “Alright, Liam, did they give you anything for it?”

“Risperdal” Liam answered. He was rubbing his arm with his hand. “It’s an antipsychotic.”

Stiles laughed again. “Oh, this just gets better.”

Stella sighed. She was thinking the same thing, but she had to focus, she had to take care of Liam which was surprising to Scott. Her attitude was definitely not something he expected from Stella. The way she acted earlier, her personality, the way she was talking to Liam… Even after all those years of knowing Stella, she just kept surprising Scott.

“Okay, okay, I think I’ve used it before” Stella murmured. It was definitely ringing a bell. Because that’s probably what she used when she was around 8 and she was having serious anger issues. Stella remembered using it for a while but then not looking at it ever since. “I remember the side effects. Are you using it?”

Liam shook his head no. 

“Obviously” Stiles murmured, causing Scott to look at him with a face that demanded a little help and then looked at Liam again.

“Why aren’t you using it?” Scott asked curiously.

Liam looked at Scott. “I can’t play lacrosse on it” he answered, looking back at the tile as he spoke. It was the emptiness and numbness after the anger. “It makes me too tired.” Stella nodded, remembering the reason why she stopped taking it as well. She stood up, rested against the wall again, and didn’t say anything. Even Stiles chose not to say anything as he crossed his arms in front of his chest.

Scott sighed. “Okay, I think you should bail out of the game” he said, lowering his volume and looking at Liam. “Tell the Coach your leg is still hurting.”

“No, no!” Liam opposed, attempting to get up. As he stood up, Scott stood up with him. Liam’s eyes moved around on the three bodies watching him. “I can do this.” He looked at Stella and Scott. “Especially if you guys are there.”

Stella sighed, shaking her head. “I’m not gonna be there Liam” she said, pushing herself off the lockers and taking few steps forward. She had to bail now since Lydia and she decided to do something about Meredith. They have to talk about something. “And Liam, it’s not just about the game.” Stella looked at Scott and Stiles for support and then looked back at Liam, continued. “We think whoever killed Demarco might be on the team.”

“Who’s Demarco?” Liam asked, looking at Stella.

“The one who brought the beer to the party” Stiles answered. It was the first time that he didn’t have any sarcasm or teasing in his voice since they got in here. “The guy who was beheaded, remember?”

“We think the person who ordered the key killed Demarco” Scott said, adding up to their case.

Hearing that, Liam looked down at the tiles again, thinking about something. That caught Stella’s attention. “Liam” she said, taking few more steps towards Scott. “You know something. What do you know?”

Liam looked up at them. “I don’t know who ordered the keg” Liam murmured. “But I know who paid for it.”

“Who?” Stella quickly and heatedly asked. “Tell me so that before they rip my head off, I can rip their heads off.” Stiles and Scott looked at Stella with a frown without saying anything. Meanwhile Stella didn’t really care and just shrugged. “What? My eyes are blue because of something I can’t remember. Killing someone else won’t change a thing.” She looked at Liam again. “So, tell me who.”

Liam sighed, looked at Stella. “Garret.”

“Wolfsbane.” Young man frowned as he watched his girlfriend mixed up some ingredients, turning them into a yellow mixture. “That’s wolfsbane?” Two freshmen were inside the chemistry lab after making sure that they weren’t being followed, trying to perfect their new weapon to kill more supernatural creatures and get paid. “I thought it was purple.”

“Not this species” Violet said, looking at the mixture inside the glass she was holding. “Which is very rare and very expensive.”

Garret lightly chuckled. “What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked, knotting his eyebrows, and looking at Violet. “Don’t screw up?”

“Don’t miss” Violet corrected him. As Garret laughed, it was sarcastic and nowhere near sincere. But Violet didn’t care. She parted her lips again. “Okay, all you have to do is nick him. It’ll work fast.” She took a deep breath and as she walked up to her boyfriend, she spoke. “Even on an Alpha.”

“We gonna do this again?”

“I’m just saying I don’t know why we’re going after a Beta when there’s an Alpha on the field” She pushed back angrily and then added. “Besides, that Omega is going to be in the crowd as well.”

Garret rolled his eyes. “Because an entire pack of Alphas went after them and they were the ones left standing” Garret said, stopping on every word.

“It’s a lot of money” Violet said insistently.

“So is the Beta” Garret said, ending the conversation. “Besides, it’s not certain she is gonna be in the crowd. As far as people tell, she doesn’t go to these games that much.”

Victoria had nothing to do but nod and agree with him so in silent, Garret pushed a button on his stick, causing a dagger to pop up. Violet grabbed the mixture and poured it to onto the dagger with a smile.

“She was here for this.” Stella stopped right near the Beacon Hills High sign, hearing a familiar voice. After getting a call from Sheriff that Meredith was there, she had to _urgently_ meet with Lydia to go the station but then her ear focused on the noises and she heard him. She heard Derek. “We use it to teach young Betas how to control the shifts on a full moon.”

It was coming from downstairs, from the Hale vault.

Stella frowned, blocked out the voices from the lacrosse field and only focused on there. It was pretty tricky since Stella was still werewolf in training, but she was able to do it. And then she heard someone else, causing her gulp and sigh. “Control was never one of Kate’s strengths” he said. She had no idea what they were talking about, she could guess but she was feeling not brave at all to go downstairs and face Chris. She hasn’t seen him since she became a werewolf. She hasn’t talked to him since she became a werewolf. The last text message she sent was ‘okay’ to Chris informing him about the two-month break. And Chris fought for her. He kept texting, he kept calling but Stella felt embarrassed. She ignored everything. She didn’t talk to anyone she knew. She stayed in the present, in London. She didn’t have the courage to call him up. And she had no idea he was back. Because no one told her.

So, considering all that, it only made sense that she decided to stay where she was, listening in on them.

“You knew she was alive, didn’t you?” Derek asked curiously.

“Not for certain” Chris answered. “But I’d been searching ever since you handed me that shotgun shell.”

“Have you ever mentioned this to Stella?” Derek asked this time. Chris didn’t say anything, there was a silence. And then Derek continued. “When she called me and asked me to pick her up from the airport, she told me that Kate was the reason she was coming back. And she didn’t really sound like she found out about it just then. It was like she already knew, planning for it.”

Another silence that lasted few minutes. And then Chris’ surprised voice. “Is she here? In Beacon Hills?” he asked, Derek murmured something confirmative and then Chris softly chuckled. “She’s always been a smart girl. I’m not surprised if she knew way before we did.”

There was another dead silent that Stella didn’t know what was happening. She looked around; it was empty. She looked at her watch, she was running late to meet with Lydia but she kept listening to them anyway, hearing Derek’s voice. “What are you gonna do when you find her?” he asked curiously, back to their topic about Kate.

“There’s a place I can take her” Chris responded. Stella frowned. 

“You saying you have some kind of werewolf jail?” Derek questioned with a soft and smiley tone in his voice.

“Something like that” Chris said and, in that moment, someone scored, and everybody started cheering causing Stella to lose her focus. She frowned, tried to focus, and listen to Derek and Chris.

She took a deep breath in, counted to ten. She tried really hard and when she could hear the conversation inside the Hale vault again, Derek was talking. “What if I asked you not to?” he said, taking a step forward to Chris. “She took something from me.” Derek breathed in. “At first, I just thought it was a part of my past. I started to lose something else.” Stella knew he was talking about his eyes. And he found herself walking down to the vault fast. “My sense of smell. I’m losing my power.”

When Stella got to, she was already on the last step down, looking at Derek and Chris. “I’m not going to let that happen” she said confidently and broken. Hearing her, Chris and Derek quickly looked at the staircase she was standing on, shaking her head.

“Stella-”

Stella didn’t let her uncle to speak up. She interrupted him and continued, determined. “I’m _not_ going to let anyone die because of me again.” Her phone buzzed inside her pocket, she knew it was Lydia, but she ignored her as she was looking at Derek and Chris. “Kate is my mother. Everything she does… It’s on me. The blame is on me and I’m not going to let her hurt anyone else. Ever again.”

“I’m aware this is probably about the dead pool…” Sheriff said walking inside with three girls behind her. Malia, Stella, and Lydia… They were all at the station to talk with Meredith. Stella was still thinking about the things she said to Derek and Chris, but she sighed and looked at Sheriff, following him inside. Sheriff called them here because Parrish found Meredith walking miles of miles to school from Eichen House where she was usually staying. Meredith told them she was looking for Stella and Lydia. And he knew it was a life and death situation. That’s why he even allowed something like this in the first place. “… but I can’t let her leave the station. And, in a minute, I’m gonna have to call Eichen House and let them know she’s here.”

Stella looked at the Sheriff, stopped walking. “Give us an hour” she said.

“Stella, even though I am so happy to see you here in Beacon Hills…” Sheriff started, crossing his arms in front of his chest. He wasn’t also moving, and he was looking at the young girl. “… I can’t do that.” He stopped, noticing the way the girls were looking at him. Stella raised her eyebrows, pushing him to give them more than he could give them. Sheriff sighed. “You got 15 minutes.”

Stella, Malia, and Lydia walked inside the room where Meredith was waiting for them. They all took a deep breath when Parrish’s voice reached to Stella’s ears, forcing her hearing ability to work. “You called Lydia?” he questioned, looking at Sheriff. He sounded curious. Stella wasn’t sure if that was the right call, considering he was talking to the sheriff.

“I called Lydia and Stella, yeah” Sheriff confirmed, turning towards him to look at him.

“Because Meredith asked for them, or because of the other thing?” Parrish asked, wondering.

Sheriff seemed surprised, not understanding him. “What other thing?”

“Their psychic thing” Parrish answered, after looking around and making sure that no one was listening to them.

“You think Lydia and Stella are psychic?” Sheriff asked, looking confused.

“Do you?”

Sheriff didn’t know what to say to that comeback. “No, I do not. I think that they are, uh…” Sheriff paused, trying to find the right words. “I think they are intuitive.”

“That’s what they used to call psychics” Parris said. “Intuitionists.”

Sheriff sighed, loud and softly. “Yeah, and I used to call myself a rational human being” he said. “Get in here and shut the door.” He walked inside with Parrish behind him and Stella gave all of her attention to the weird, crazy girl who could help them find the other cipher key. Sheriff looked at Stella and Lydia. “Ask what you need to ask.”

Lydia smiled, handed her phone to Meredith. The girl in grey sweatpants took the phone when Lydia parted her lips. “Meredith, aren’t you going to answer it?” she asked curiously, causing her to walk up and reached to Lydia’s ear like she was going to give her a secret.

“It’s not ringing” Meredith whispered. Stella sighed, asking if she was serious with her face expression. Last semester, when they were trying to find Lydia, she claimed a phone ringing when there was no phone ringing. She talked to someone, found out where Lydia was. The place where she didn’t wanna be found, which led to… And now they actually needed to find something in order to save lives and according to Meredith, the phone wasn’t ringing.

Stella’s fingers curled up in a fist while Meredith sat back down. “Is she serious? Are you serious?” she mumbled, trying to calm her nerves, trying to calm her anger. This was second time today and it didn’t look like a great sign. She paused, took a deep breath in, and continued. She looked at Meredith. “You’re helping us when we don’t need to find a place but when we really need to do something, the phone isn’t ringing. Really?” Stella felt Sheriff’s hand on her shoulder, trying to get her to calm down. She tightened her lips, Lydia tried to block the memory away. Stella sighed again. “Meredith” she softly said, still little bit of an anger inside her. “You came here to help us, remember?”

“You called me” Meredith responded, looking at the two banshees in front of her. Stella frowned, her eyes moving between Lydia and Meredith confusedly.

Lydia was in the same situation. “What do you mean we called you?” she wondered out loud, looking at Meredith.

“I heard you” Meredith whispered, her brown and crazy eyes were on Stella and Lydia.

“Meredith” Parrish interrupted, noticing the way she was pushing Stella and Lydia way too heard. He felt it and even though he didn’t know what was happening or what happened, he decided to help them. “Can I ask you a question?” Meredith nodded yes. Parrish kneeled down near Stella, in front of Meredith. Meanwhile Stella’s eyes moved to Parrish and then Meredith, trying to understand what the hell this deputy was trying to do. “When you need help, when you need to find something, is there someone you reach out to? Maybe someone you call?”

“It depends” Meredith said after a while of thinking. Lydia and Stella exchanged a confused gaze and then they looked at the young girl. “Different people for different things.”

“So maybe there’s a number that can help us?” Parrish calmly asked. “Someone we can call?” Meredith nodded again, causing Stella to pull up her phone from her pocket. “Would you be okay telling us?”

“Yes” Meredith softly murmured. Stella waited ready for Meredith to tell the numbers. “2,4,3,6.” Stella frowned with the familiarity of the numbers. It took few seconds to realize these were the exact numbers she was sketching on her notebook during Coach’s class today. Her lips fell apart in shock but then he realized something.

Meredith was silent and she didn’t continue.

“Mer, we need a few more numbers” Malia said, thinking the exact same thing as Stella and Lydia.

“No” Meredith responded, looking at the young were-coyote. “That’s the number.”

“Phone numbers are 10 digits, Meredith” Stella said with a voice that showed everyone how much she was trying to be calm and not get angry.

Meredith shook her head, talking. “But… But that’s the number.”

“Meredith” Lydia roared angrily. Maybe Stella was trying to calm down, but Meredith keep repeating that these were the numbers were definitely making Lydia angry. “Phone numbers always have 10 digits.”

Stella looked at the numbers that were written on her phone now. 2-4-3-6. What was it supposed to mean?

“That’s the number” Meredith repeated.

“Meredith.” Lydia was getting angry. Sheriff walked up to her, putting his hand on her shoulder, trying to calm her down and got her to stand up after kneeling in front of Meredith.

Sheriff took a deep breath. “Lydia” he said softly. “Hey, come here.” Lydia sighed, still looking at the banshee. “I think that’s the best we’re gonna get.”

“No” Lydia said, whispering. “There has to be more.” She turned around suddenly and so quickly that Meredith startled. “What’s the rest of it, Meredith? Hmm? Just concentrate!”

“But that’s… that’s…” Meredith’s voice was shaking; her eyes flickering. “That’s the number.” Stella put her phone down on the table quickly and walked towards Lydia, holding her arm as Meredith kept repeating. “That’s the number. That’s the number.

“It’s okay, sweetheart” Sheriff softly said, leaning into Meredith to calm her down. “We’re-”

As Sheriff was trying to calm her down, all of sudden, Meredith shouted, scared. “That’s the number!”

“Alright, these numbers have to mean something because I’ve been sketching, drawing, painting and writing them since this morning” Stella whispered. They were sitting on the table. Lydia’s hands were between her hands, thinking and taking deep breathes. Malia was sitting on the couch, looking at the banshees. Stella stood up, sighed in distress and grabbed the paper that had the numbers written on it. She wrinkled it up and she was ready to toss it to the garbage when she noticed something. On the cable phone, the numbers had their own letters. “Lydia” she murmured, getting hers and Malia’s attention. “What if… What if it’s like Algebra?”

“What do you mean?” Malia asked, walking towards them while Stella grabbed the phone and turned it the way they both could see it.

“I mean…” She licked her lips. “What if the numbers are actually letters?” Lydia stopped, hearing Stella. She quickly grabbed a pen and a paper, tried to look at the numbers and the letters but then she felt Stella’s hands on hers. The first letter being A… It gave Stella an idea after the first cipher key being Allison. “Don’t” she whispered, causing Lydia to look at her with worry and in confusion. But Stella just sat back and opened the computer, looking at the codes and the empty cipher key blank on the screen. Her fingers started moving on the keyboard. “I know what the next cipher key is.”

Lydia looked at the name. _Aiden._

Stella took a deep breath and under Malia and Lydia’s worried eyes, she pressed enter and the codes turned into letter, showing them the second list.

Kate Argent 12

Noshiko Yukimura 5

Joanna McLaughlin 1

Steve Grace 1

Tom Hill 1

Brett Talbot 1

Blair Loran 250

Reed Schell 250

Calvin McLean 250

Richard Benefield 250

Jack Marshland 250

Joy Waldrop 250

Jordan Parrish 5

Stella and Lydia looked at each other, seeing the last name on the list. None of them had any idea why Parrish was even on here but that wasn’t the only surprising name on it. Stella knew Brett was a werewolf, but she always thought Liam was on the second list because as far as she knew, Brett was living outside the Beacon Hills.

And then it hit her.

“Oh, God” she murmured to herself. “They’re not after Liam.” Lydia and Malia looked at the young girl, not knowing what she was talking about since they didn’t know who Brett was. Stella turned to Malia. “Call Stiles, Malia” she said. “They have to know Brett is on the list, too. They’re not after Liam.” She sighed. “They are after Brett.”

“Do you want to talk about why Parrish is on that list?” Lydia asked, her eyes are still on the white screen of the computer. She took a deep breath, pressed her lips together and looked at Stella confusedly.

Malia was in the other room talking to Stiles, telling him about the list and Brett.

“Yeah, I’d usually like to talk about the things that at least I know a little bit about” Stella responded to Lydia’s question, giving out her breath. She heard Lydia agree and as the door opened suddenly, Lydia pushed down the computer, closing it.

“Sorry” he whispered, thinking he was interrupting something which was true in a way. Stella and Lydia couldn’t let Parrish see the list until they talked to everyone about it. “I was just seeing if you guys were okay.” Stella smiled, telling him that they are okay. Parrish continued. “You need a ride home?”

“Uh, no” Stella answered. “We’ll be fine.” Parrish smiled, closed the door, and then left them alone to understanding nothing.

Lydia opened the computer back on, looking at the last name on the second list of dead pool. _Jordan Parrish._


	5. ORPHANED

“What the hell is happening to this kid?” Stiles asked loudly while Derek and he were trying to hold Brett down who was laying on the metal desk unconsciously and shaking like crazy with green bubbles coming out of his mouth. Which was pretty concerning and hard to hold still.

But they were trying.

After talking with Malia and seeing the second list, they realized it wasn’t Liam that Garret was after. It was Brett and when Scott went to look for him, Violet attacked him with a thermo-cut wire from behind but failed to kill him. Then the police showed up, it was a total fiasco and they managed to take Brett here, to the vet.

“He’s been poisoned by a rare wolfsbane” Deaton answered Stiles, walking towards them with a blade, a lancet between his fingers. “I need to make an incision and you need to hold him as still as possible.”

Derek and Stiles were definitely trying, pushing him harder on the table but somehow it wasn’t enough which caused Stiles to look at Derek with a scowl and anxiety and in need of help. “Hey, Derek, how about a little werewolf strength?” he asked sarcastically, having troubles to hold Brett still.

“Yeah, I’m not the only one here with a werewolf strength” Derek responded angrily, scowling at Stiles. Brett was moving faster and stronger every second without even noticing since he was still unconscious.

“If you can’t hold him still, the incision might kill him” Deaton warned them.

“Derek, he’s slipping” Stiles announced, louder with anxiety. Brett was shaking away from their hands. “I don’t think I can hold him. Ah!” All of a sudden, Brett glowed his amber eyes, pushed Deaton, Derek, and Stiles aside strong and fast as he growled. And then stood up, looking around like he was trying to find a way out. He was like rabid, going crazy.

And then Stella walked in, looked at Brett in shock for a while but then her fingers curled into a fist and punched Brett, knocking him out. The young werewolf fell on the ground, getting back to being unconscious while Stella just shrugged. “I’ve been wanting to do that ever since this morning” she exclaimed with a smile looking at Derek, Stiles, and Deaton with her glowing blue eyes. “I guess when you combine Argent skills and werewolf strength… There is something beautiful coming out of it.”

As her eyes went back to brown, Derek was looking sarcastically at the young girl. “Yeah, maybe more than you think” he commented. Stella was looking at him with a smile as she shrugged but when she saw the scratches on his arm weren’t healing as quickly as before, her smile faded away and left an anxious and worried expression.

“Hey, Doc, I don’t think he’s breathing” Stiles said, kneeling next to Brett to check him. Taking his condition as an opportunity, Deaton did what he was planning to do in the first place. He made the incision, cutting him up from upside down on the middle of chest and as a yellow smoke rose through from it and Derek’s wound started to heal, Stella pressed her lips together and then looked down at Brett who just started breathing. “Is he okay?” 

“I think he’ll be fine, but probably out for a while” Deaton said as an answer to Stiles’ question. And then Stella frowned as she heard Brett murmuring something. A mantra…

“The sun… The moon… The truth…” Brett was repeating it, trying to stay in control as Stella understood it was his version of alpha, beta, omega.

“Guys, can you hear that?” Stiles asked, knotting his eyebrows. “I think he’s saying something.”

Deaton leaned over to Brett to hear what he was saying and then straightened up, hearing the mantra. “Three things cannot long be hidden” he said. “The sun, the moon, and the truth.” He looked at Derek. “It’s Buddhist.”

Stella’s mind instantly started thinking, she thought about a Buddhist. It was a werewolf that was also in Noshiko’s Nogitsune story but that wasn’t the reason Stella knew of her. She met the werewolf herself few years back. She let out a soft breath and parted her lips. “I think I know whose pack he is in” Stella said, looking at Deaton. “Satomi.”

The other day Stella met with Stiles and Lydia to go to the sheriff station to tell Parrish about the dead pool. They thought it was a good idea since he was also in it and they need to ask something from him.

“Your dad should be back within the hour” Parrish informed them, opening the door and walking to his desk with three teenagers behind him. “You want to wait in his office?”

Stiles looked at Parrish. “Actually…” He took a deep breath. “We want to talk to you” he said causing Parrish to raise his eyebrows, looking at them asking for more information since he was pretty confused.

“Privately” Stella added.

“This is a hit list?” Parrish asked, looking at them confusedly. After a while of eyeing them, they took them inside the Sheriff’s office so that they could talk privately. And the minute they were, and the door was closed, Stella handed the list over to Parrish so he could look at it.

“We call it a dead pool” Stiles responded, his arms crossed in front of his chest. “Recognize any of the names?”

“Yeah” Parrish confirmed, looking down at the list again. “The Sheriff had me run a bunch of these through the system last night. But we couldn’t find any of them.”

Stiles looked at Lydia. “Show him the other thing” he said, pointing the list with his head. Lydia looked around, questioning why it had to be her but then, with a sigh, she held the paper and turned it over to show him the folded part.

It was part that Parrish’s name was written on.

“Okay” Parrish murmured, pushing himself off the table that he was leaning against. “That’s kind of terrifying. What’s the number?”

“That’s how much you’re worth” Stella explained before tightening her lips.

Parrish’s eyes moved on them so fast as the shock filled up his face. “I’m worth five dollars?” he questioned loudly.

As Stella gulped, Stiles held up his hand and showing him the real number with his fingers. “Five Million” he corrected the young deputy.

“I only make 40,000 a year” Parrish murmured in shock and as he kept looking down at the list, he parted his lips again. “Maybe I should kill myself.”

“Yeah, that was kind of my reaction after I found out that I worth 25 Million” Stella murmured, scrunching her nose slightly. “It only took few seconds to realize that if I’m dead, I can’t really use the money, so I backed down.” She moved her eyebrows up and down and then continued. “Besides… The Argents are pretty rich, so I probably wouldn’t need to do something stupid like that.”

Stiles looked at her with his hands pulled to sides, questioning what the hell she was talking about but when Parrish murmured again with a frown, they all looked at him. “I don’t get it” he said, not even listening to Stella. “Why… Why am I on this?”

“Honestly, that might be a question for another day” Stiles responded. “Right now, there’s still another third of the list we gotta crack.”

“We need the third cipher key, but we need help getting it” Lydia continued, looking at Parrish.

“From who?”

Stella sucked a breath between her teeth, looked at Parrish. “Meredith. “

“The girl from Eichen?” Parrish asked. Stella nodded, causing Parrish to sigh, and walked towards the door. “The last time you saw her, you almost gave her a nervous breakdown.”

Parrish opened the door for them to get out and looked at them when Stella pulled her hands aside offensively. “Hey!” She said, tilting her head. “That was Lydia. Not me.”

“Uh… Almost” Lydia protested.

Parrish looked at the two of them. Stella smiled, hearing Lydia’s comeback but then the screams behind her brain caused her smile to fade away. Now, it could be a normal thing for a banshee and Stella was used to it by now. The only reason her heart started to beat faster was the fact that the screams and the cry for help was familiar.

Something was happening.

Stella stepped forward. “Look Parrish” she said, interrupting. “All you need to do is get Lydia and Stiles into Eichen. They will take care of the rest. We have to do this.”

“Fine” Parrish said after a long while of thinking. Being on that list was scary enough. Maybe they really needed to figure out and find these lists before something terrible happens. Parrish looked at Stiles and Lydia as he was warning them. “But the minute I think you’re going too far, that meeting will end.”

“Has anyone seen Stiles, Lydia, Kira or Stella today?” The young woman said, looking at the list she was holding between her hands. And as she looked up and saw the four empty seats, she sighed. She looked at young girl with blonde hair. “Malia.” She looked up at the teacher hearing her name and waited her to continue. “Any idea where your friends are?”

“I could try catching their scent” she offered, pulling her hands to both sides while they are still on the table.

“Right” Ms. Flemming murmured, not taking Malia seriously. “How about I just mark them down as absent.” As the teacher did as she told, Malia frowned hearing someone whispering her name. She looked around but everything seemed normal and no one seemed to be calling for her. “Okay, everyone. Let’s begin with last night’s homework.” Malia looked down at her notebook but then she heard the voice again. She closed her notebook, put it inside her bag and stood up to get out of the class. “Malia.” She stopped with teacher calling her name. Malia looked at Ms. Flemming. “Do you need to be excused from class?”

Malia looked at her like it was just too obvious. “Yeah” she said and got out of the classroom, walked down the hall.

The voice kept saying her name.

Malia reached the staircase, stopped, and then looked around to see Derek standing on the highest step with a t-shirt between his fingers. “What are you doing here?” Malia asked, slightly knotting her eyebrows, and looking at Derek.

“Brett’s still out of it” Derek said, slowly going down the stairs. “I need to find his pack and warn them about the dead pool.”

“So, what do you need me for?”

“I know a little something about his pack” Derek answered her. “They have a kind of secret meeting place in the woods. No one’s spent more time the woods of Beacon Hills than you.” He looked at the t-shirt and then threw it to Malia for her to catch it. “This is Brett’s. Breath it in.”

“I’m not good at that yet” Malia responded, warning him. Her eyes moved from t-shirt she was holding to Derek’s face.

“Try it” Derek said. “I’ll teach you.” Malia took the green shirt up to her nose. “Focus on the different scents. Some are tied to identity. Others give off an emotion.”

Malia breathed in the shirt, trying to catch a scent.

“Scott” Stella said anxiously the minute Alpha picked up the phone. This was the first thing she did, she called Scott the minute Lydia and Stiles got inside the blue jeep and followed Parrish to the Eichen House. She was worried. She knew something happened and she was a lot more sure when she heard Scott’s anxious heavily breathing. “Something happened, didn’t it?”

“Garret” he responded in hurry. Stella heard a door opening. Sometimes her super wolf hearing would kick in and caused her to hear the voices in the background. She tried to focus on Scott and his voice as she blocked other voices away. “Garret has Liam. He… He asked me to help him save Violet. Stella, I…”

Stella interrupted the Alpha who was talking in hurry and loudly as he was pretty nervous. Stella walked to the parking lot. “Alright, alright, hold on” she said, getting inside her car. She closed the door. “What the hell do you mean by he has Liam? Just relax a little bit and tell me everything.”

“He said… He said he poisoned him with wolfsbane and… and if I won’t save Violet, he won’t tell me where Liam is.” He sounded worried, hurry and definitely scared for Liam. “Stella, I got him into this. It was my fault and I… I’ve looked everywhere but… But nothing. I got nothing.”

Stella frowned, tried to think of a plan. They managed… Well, they tried to rob an armored car before, but it didn’t have a killer and a person inside it. “Do you know how Garret is planning to save Violet?” she asked. She could feel her anxiety rising as well. She was worried about the young Beta. “As far as I know, they are transferring Violet to another place tonight.”

As Scott told her about Garret’s plan, Stella took a deep breath. Apparently, he wanted Scott to create a distraction so that Garret could take Violet, but Stella couldn’t help but feel it was his only plan.

She quickly created another plan. It wasn’t great but it was the only thing she could think of in such a short notice. “Okay, I hope you are aware of how absolutely stupid and dangerous this plan is” Stella said. “More than our usual ones.” She took a deep breath, brushing her hair and then she started the engine of her car. Scott murmured a confirmation. Of course, he knew. Stella continued. “Do you know where he was seen last?” She could try to look there and maybe if she was lucky, she could find him.

Stella closed her eyes shut as she could feel the panic.

“Yeah, Mason told me they were on a run inside the woods” Scott said quickly. He took a deep breath, gave it out with as he gulped.

“Okay, okay McCall” she said, turning the wheel towards the woods. “You go with Garret. Watch him. I’ll take the woods. We have to keep our odds open.”

Stella searched everywhere, looked everywhere for Liam after ending the call with Scott but she wasn’t that lucky. That’s why she found herself in the vet after Deaton called her here. Apparently, Scott went with Garret’s plan, but he saw the armored police car that was carrying Violet knocked over, in an accident. He ran to check but there were so many bad things happening.

Violet was gone. The car was attacked by the creatures that called Berserkers. And they were still there when Scott and Garret arrived at the car.

Garret couldn’t survive.

And when Stella arrived at the vet clinic, Chris and Scott were still there. Scott was out, he had some bone looking thing inside his stomach that hurt him badly and Deaton was trying to heal him. “Hey, there” the vet welcomed when Scott started to get to himself. Stella and Chris were standing next to the metal table that Scott was laying down on it, watching him blink his eyes. “I was actually hoping you would be out for a few more minutes.”

Stella’s gaze moved to Scott who was looking down at the thing in his stomach. The young Argent bit her lip, looked at her uncle who was walking towards Scot and then she looked down at him. “Scott” she whispered softly, placing one hand on his chest and the other holding the bone. She sighed and continued. “This is going to hurt like a bitch.” Without giving him a chance to react, she quickly pulled the thing, causing Scott to scream in agony, squirm on the table with pain. He was almost falling down before Stella quickly put the thing on the table and grabbed Scott by the arm, helping him stand and not letting him fall down on his face.

“You alright?” Chris asked, looking at Scott, helping Stella while holding him up while the doctor put bandage on Scott’s wound.

“Where’s my dad and the sheriff?” Scott asked curiously, sounding concerned.

“They’re at the hospital” Stella responded, trying to calm him down. She was pretty terrified herself, but she was trying to keep her cool as they had to discuss what to do. “I talked to Melissa. They’re both doing fine.”

As Scott held the bandage the way Deaton told him to, he looked at the Argents. He was feeling the pain so much that he was frowning. “Mm-hmm. It was Kate” he said. Stella gulped down, thinking about her mother as she kept holding Scott. “It was her and the Berserkers.”

“We know” Chris answered, causing Scott to look at him. “But they move fast. And they don’t leave much in the way of tracks.”

“And I wasn’t pretty good at finding Liam either.” Stella sighed in defeat, shaking her head to both sides. “I’m sorry Scott. I’m still struggling with being a werewolf, controlling it. The voices, the smells… They all mix up with each other and I think Garret did something so that we couldn’t find him. There were noises in the woods, more than there should have been. And I…”

Scott squeezed her hand on his shoulder, telling her it was okay. And then looked at her, still holding Stella’s hand on his shoulder. “We have to find Kate.” He looked at Chris. “We have to find her.” He took a deep breath through the pain. “She’s got Violet. I think Violet knows where Liam is.”

Deaton frowned, grabbing the Berserker bone. “Then as much as this hurt, it could probably also help” he said, looking at Stella and Scott. “Can you get a scent?”

Stella’s lips slowly fell apart, looking at the thing but then as she felt everyone was looking at her, she looked back at them. Apparently, they wanted her to do it. “Uh… I’m not really that good at catching scent still” she responded with a murmur. She took the thing from Deaton’s hands and sighed. “But I can try.”

“Hey, isn’t that the building you used to work in?” Stella questioned as her eyes found the big grey building that the scent led them to. Chris nodded his head as he got out of the car. Stella frowned, thinking why they were here. Why the scent brought them here…

“We used to own the building” Chris started explaining as he noticed the confused expression on Scott’s face. He kept his gaze on the building. “It was part of our business.”

There has been a moment of silence but then Scott turned to look at the Argents. “I’ve fought these things before” he said. Stella and Chris looked away from the building and looked at the young alpha. “They’re strong. Really strong.”

“That’s why I brought this” Chris responded, reaching over to the backseat of the car.

As he came back at them, carrying one of the largest guns that they own, Stella shrugged. “And I have my gun and claws” she said, wrinkling up her lips. She looked at Scott. “I mostly use my gun but…” Stella smiled. “Are you okay with that?”

Scott looked at the Argent with wide open eyes. “I’m definitely okay with that.”

Chris, Scott, and Stella were walking with slow and sure steps inside the building. Chris was holding his gun and Stella didn’t bring out her gun yet. She trusted her Argent skills but right now… She took a deep breath, kept walking and then heard Scott’s question. “What happens if we find Kate?” he asked, softly murmuring.

Stella took another deep breath, looked at Scott from the corner of her eyes. “I can tell you it’s not gonna be a family reunion with lots of warm hugs and tears” she whispered, giving him an answer as she kept looking around carefully.

And then a voice echoed through the almost empty building. “You shouldn’t have come here” a woman’s voice said. Kate’s voice… Chris, Stella, and Scott turned around where they thought the voice came from but there was no one. Not even a shadow…

“Kate” Scott called out as Chris slightly pulled his gun up and placed it on his shoulder. “I’m here for Violet. I need to talk to her.”

“I knew you’d find me” Kate continued, not listening to Scott. Chris was trying to find where she was talking from, while Stella gulped with her anxiety. She never thought this was how their reunion was going to be. And then a shadow appeared when Stella was thinking about it. Chris aimed, Stella and Scott looked at the shadow on the white curtains. “But… I was hoping we could do this later.” The shadow got smaller as she got closer to them. “I just needed…” Two Berserker shadows appeared behind her. “… a little more time.”

“For what?” Chris asked.

“To learn control” Kate answered, still not showing her face but Stella could see the shadows of her claws behind the curtain. And then Kate pushed the curtains open, showing herself. Her face was like a jaguar, her eyes were glowing green. “Hey, there baby girl.” Stella’s eyes started flickering, seeing her mother just few feet away from her. “I didn’t exactly imagine how this would be our first mother-daughter reunion.”

“That makes two of us” Stella whispered, squeezing her hands in a fist near her legs.

Kate smiled but then looked at her brother. “Lower the gun. We walk away” she instructed and then continued. “And you don’t have to get hurt.”

“Where’s Violet?” Scott asked insistently.

“Put the gun down, Chris” Kate repeated herself, ignoring Scott’s question. Scott asked his question again, Chris’ finger moved up to the trigger. Stella was looking at the Berserkers.

Kate growled.

“No, no!” As Scott started to yell, the two Berserkers behind Kate started running towards them to probably attack them. Chris started shooting back to back until he was out of bullets. Scott kept yelling. “No, no, stop!” Chris didn’t listen. Kate appeared from Chris’ right, causing him to drop his gun. She punched Chris on the face, he stumbled and tried to get his balance back from the table behind him.

Seeing her uncle getting hurt, Stella clawed out and roared as she glowed her blue eyes at Kate.

After a while, they were almost done. They were tired, losing the battle. Chris was laying on the ground. Stella didn’t know where Scott was and one Berserker grabbed her by the back of her neck, raised its bone-y hand, getting ready to end her.

“No!” Kate screamed, seeing her daughter in danger. She opened her mouth, roared, ordered the Berserker to let go off her daughter. Stella moaned with pain the minute she was free from the scary monster. Her eyes found Kate who was looking back at her with sparks of worry inside her green eyes.

“Stella! Scott!” Stella laid back as she heard Chris yelling for them and she saw Kate and the Berserkers leaving upside down, disappearing into the shadows as her vision got blurry because of the pain in her head.

Stella sighed and when she looked at the ceiling, she saw someone reaching his hand for help. Scott… “You okay?” he asked as he pulled her up on her feet. Stella cleaned up the dust on her, she could feel the wounds on her body were already healing.

She looked at Scott, still worried about Liam but she managed to flash him a smile as she nodded. “I guess, my mom still had some motherhood inside her after all” she murmured and then noticed the expression on Scott’s face. “Scott, what happened?”

“Violet…” he whispered. “She is, uh… She is dead.” Stella knew what that meant. She was their last shot at finding Liam and now… None of them had an idea.

“Scott, I’m sorry” Chris murmured.

“I’m not going to find him” Scott said with sadness and defeat inside his voice.

“There’s still time, Scott” Chris tried to assure him. “There’s still time.”

And then, Scott and Stella heard something. A roar, coming from a distance. A cry for help… As they looked at each other, they both knew who it was. Stella exhaled in relief, realizing he was alive and now they could find him. “Liam” she whispered.

And while all of these were happening, Stiles and Lydia were at the Stilinski’s house as they were trying to crack the third list. And they were not being very successful at it. Trip to Eichen House was a bust because Meredith told them that the Benefactor was holding her back from helping them. She wasn’t going to help them anymore.

“Okay, well, we know one thing” Stiles said, pacing around in the room up and down, thinking about what they knew. “Both of the first two keys, Allison and Aiden, they’re both names of the dead. Right?”

“But we’ve already tried every other dead person’s name we could think of” Lydia responded to Stiles. She quickly turned towards him and continued. “And if you haven’t noticed, there were a lot of tries.”

Stiles sighed. “Yeah, I noticed” he murmured and then as he looked at Lydia, concerned. “Hey, you okay?”

“She was the only other Banshee that Stella and I’ve ever met, and I think I might have just drove her over the edge” Lydia said underneath her breath. She couldn’t stop thinking about how Meredith was in the Eichen House. They learned that the Benefactor was a guy and not a girl and this was the only thing they were able to find out from her and when Lydia wanted more, Meredith went insane.

Lydia was blaming herself for it.

“Lydia, it wasn’t your fault” Stiles told her, walking towards the desk that Lydia was sitting behind and in front of the computer. “I was there, too. And you guys are probably not the only… Hold on.” As Lydia noticed the sudden mood change in Stiles’ voice, she turned around on her chair to look at him. Stiles continued. “Banshees predict death. Right? So, what if the third key is someone who isn’t dead…”

“But will be” Lydia whispered, completing Stiles’ sentence. She quickly looked back at the computer screen and placed her fingers on the keyboard. She closed her eyes and as she started typing, Stiles watched her.

Few seconds later, Lydia opened her eyes. Stiles gasped looking at the name Lydia wrote, his eyes opened widely. Because in the blank, Lydia wrote _DEREK._

With deep and concerned breathes, Lydia pushed the enter button and the codes turned into names, causing Stiles to hold his breath with anxiety. As the names started to roll down on the computer screen, Lydia gulped. She knew what it meant, and she wasn’t happy about it. “We have to tell Stella” she murmured. Stiles gave out the breath he was holding, nodded at Lydia, agreeing, and looked at the names on the final list.

Satomi Ito 10

Malia Hale 4

Liam Dunbar 3

Meredith Walker 1

Patrick Clark 1

Liz Moore 1

Bree Leverett 250

Kaitlyn Schaad 250

Genevieve Cary 250

Angelique Fain 250

Lorilee Rohr 250

Brittani Kelley 250

Lydia moved her finger on the screen, looking at the names. And as she noticed something, she stopped. As she saw the name Meredith Walker on the list, she forgot the fact that Derek’s name broke the code and parted her lips in hurry. “Call Parrish” she said. “We need to call Parrish.”

Stella and Scott found Liam right on time. All day, he’s been trying to climb out of the well, but he kept falling down with exhaustion and the pain. This was one of the tryouts that led to his salvation. Stella grabbed one arm, Scott grabbed the other and they pulled him out right before he was about to fall again.

As Liam’s feet touched the leaves on the ground, they all sighed in relief.

“You’re okay, Liam” Scott said, calming the young Beta down. He pulled Liam into a relief hug while Stella was caressing his hair, taking a deep… very, very deep breath as she finally was able to do that without the fear of it sticking there. “You’re okay. Everything’s fine.”

As Scott pulled away, Stella looked at the young Beta with a smile on her face. “I’m sorry it took us a while to find you, kiddo” she whispered. Liam looked at Stella, telling it was okay. Stella’s hand fell down to the back of his neck and as she breathed out again, she nodded in relief.

“What are you talking about?” Lydia asked, standing up from her chair in shock.

“Lydia” Parrish said, from the other line on the phone. “Meredith’s gone. They found her an hour ago in her room. She hung herself.” Parrish took a deep breath. “I’m sorry.”

Lydia pulled the phone away from her ear in shock, not being able to follow what she was doing. But Stiles heard everything. He pulled her into a warm hug, trying to get her to calm down. He started brushing her hair back but with shock, Lydia couldn’t even hug Stiles back.

Deaton did exactly what he did to Brett to get him better, get him to heal from that rare wolfsbane. As the yellow smoke rose through his chest as well, Stella sighed. She was looking at Liam and her hand was on his forehead. “I don’t want to keep watching people die” she softly murmured, pulling her away from Liam.

“I’m not sure you have much choice about that” Chris answered, looking at his niece.

“It…” Stella sighed. “If I’m a hunter with werewolf and banshee powers, then there has to be something I can do” she responded. “There has to be. There has to be a way to keep people from dying.”

“Maybe there is” Scott told her, not being able to look anything but Liam since he was pretty worried about his Beta. But Stella looked at Scott, waiting to hear his ideas.

But Deaton looked at the two werewolves. “That’s a lot of burden to carry, guys” he warned them.

Stella and Scott looked at the vet. “I don’t care” Stella said and then looked at Scott who she knew he agreed with her. “If there is a way, I want to do it.” She took a deep breath, looked down at the metal table. “Just… No one else dies.”

Scott nodded, and looked at Deaton who was still looking at them. “Everyone on that list. Everyone on that dead pool. It doesn’t matter if they’re were-wendigos, or werewolf, or whatever” Scott said, determined. “We’re gonna save everyone.”

Stella nodded, and couldn’t help but whisper softly. “We protect those who cannot protect themselves.”

“You counted it yet?” Stiles asked curiously looking at Scott and Stella who he was sitting on the floor in his room with. They were looking at the tons of money inside the red sports bag and trying to figure out what to do. Apparently, this bag belonged to Garret and Scott found it in school and haven’t told it to anyone yet.

“No” Scott answered.

“We should probably count it” Stella responded with a sound that was closer to whisper. Her brown eyes moved on the boys in the room, saw them nodding at her as they were agreeing and watched them emptied the bag onto the floor. Right when the bag was empty, the looked at the money on the ground with a cassette falling on the top of them. Scott looked at Stella and then Stiles and then grabbed it and looked at it.

It had _‘Play Me’_ written on it.


End file.
